Nairobi, 12 January 2018-- At the close of 2017, Botswana and Tunisia were getting prepared to monitor and report on SDG 11, with the support of the UN-Habitat’s Global Urban Observatory team and the UNECA to monitor and report on SDG 11.
In October 2017, UN-Habitat and UNECA organized a technical workshop on the importance of disaggregation in achieving Agenda 2030 and possible disaggregation methodologies for SDG 11 non-spatial indicators. Participants from the lead ministries as well as the National Statistics Offices in Botswana and Tunisia participated and exchanged insights on their national experiences and challenges in producing disaggregated data, innovative solutions that could address the disaggregated data needs of SDG 11, and (statistical) capacity gaps and opportunities to reinforce national statistical systems to produce disaggregated data.
Participants appreciated the importance of data disaggregation despite the challenges that come with it. Data disaggregation requires a lot of methodological work for developing standards, tools and protocols, and improving quality of data disaggregates. There is therefore need for coordination in data collection and triangulation of data. Relevant disaggregation is often absent sometimes due to the way surveys are designed e.g. children who are not in school are excluded from school-based surveys. Additionally, participants agreed that there is a need to develop mechanisms and commitments to ensure data sharing, which should be a joint effort between partners and countries. The presentations made during the training can be accessed using this link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B87QMWwLVgkKdFRPZWJiV2l5a00.
This training on methodologies for data disaggregation was followed by an intense three-day training workshop in each of the selected cities in Botswana – Francistown and Gaborone. Ms. Sylvia Muzila, the Mayor, City of Francistown and Mr. Kagiso Thutlwe, the Mayor of Gaborone City officially opened the training workshops in their cities. The workshops were also attended by the Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing Development - Ms. Esther Serati, demonstrating a high level of commitment and goodwill essential for successfully implementing the project.
The main objective of the specialized training workshops in the two selected cities in Botswana was to enhance the existing capacity in monitoring and reporting on SDG 11 using various statistical tools and techniques. The training focused on and contributed to the reinforcement of UN-Habitat tools such as the City Prosperity Index (CPI), spatial and non-spatial data analysis, National Sample of Cities among others, consequently contributing to strengthening of the local (city level) monitoring of the SDGs, which ultimately contribute to the overall national and global monitoring and reporting. The tools and systems that will be employed to support Botswana and the other pilot countries will enable them to harmonize reporting for all the global, local and national visions. UN-Habitat and UNECA are offering an integrated suite of tools including CPI, National Sample of Cities (NSC) among others that are intended to help countries to deliver on urban monitoring, requirements/needs in a seamless way.
The workshops attended by over 50 representatives from various local authorities, provided stakeholders with an overview of the City Prosperity Index (CPI), National Sample of Cities approach and the monitoring framework for SDG 11 showcasing both the spatial and non-spatial indicators. The cities of Francistown and Gaborone both shared their experiences on urban indicators, monitoring, reporting and dissemination. It was evident that both cities were already making strides towards monitoring SDGs. For instance, Francistown already has several well-established structures such as committees to report on SDGs. Similar workshops are planned in 2018 for two pilot cities in Tunisia.
By the end of the workshop, each city had discussed and developed a work plan to guide the data collection and analyses processes for SDG 11 indicators using the CPI framework. UN-Habitat and UNECA will continue to work with the cities to ensure that capacities are adequately developed and that the selected cities in Tunisia and Botswana will be the reference point for the rest of the continent and the world. The final report and presentations from this workshop are available using this link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hDVcudP5PkvJ15w9NCdsWL60iDqKmVJV .
About the Project:
The project ‘SDG11: Monitoring and Reporting on Human Settlement Indicators in Africa and Latin America’ is supporting the design of monitoring tools to improve the availability of and access to data and statistics at city and national urban level for the formulation of evidence-based policies. UN-HABITAT, UNECA and ECLAC are working with four pilot countries, 2 from Africa (Botswana, Tunisia) and 2 from Latin America (Ecuador, Colombia) to explore and test the concept of working with a national sample of cities to report on performance on all urban SDGs indicators in a holistic manner.