TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Data transparency crucial to achieving SDG goals: Experts
Change Size
Urban poor – A resident hangs out her washing in a low socioeconomic area of Kapuk Teko, Jakarta, on Sept. 27. Poverty alleviation is one of the primary issues highlighted in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a global development agenda adopted by world leaders last year. (Antara/Rivan Awal Lingga)
I
ndonesia needs strong and accurate data as a basis to achieve its Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets by 2030, an expert has said.
Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) executive director Philips Vermonte said the government needed to create the right policies to alleviate poverty and reduce inequality, two of the SDG targets, by applying a data-driven approach.
Philips was of the opinion that the Central Statistics Agency’s (BPS) raw data should be made freely available to the public so it could be used by academics as well as demography and statistics experts to conduct studies in relation to the SDGs.
“Data is important to help the nation create the right policies for the implementation of the SDGs,” the analyst said. He was speaking during the launch of a guidebook, published by the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), that contains technical guidelines for local administrations on implementing the SDGs.
Philips said the Village Potential Survey (PODES) currently cost millions of rupiah.
The Jakarta Post digital chief editor Nezar Patria said the government needed to digitalize demography data so that it could be easily accessed by the public.
“Many documents that contain essential information to create SDG policies are not readily available,” said Nezar, who spoke in his capacity representing the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI). Besides data transparency, data synchronization was also important to prevent confusion, he added.
The SDGs are a set of goals adopted by world leaders in 2015, which cover a broad range of sustainable development issues including reducing inequality, improving health and education, ending poverty and combating climate change. (win/ebf)
