First study completed on data availability for the SDG indicators in the Caribbean Netherlands
Statistics Netherlands (CBS) has been commissioned by the standing committee on Kingdom Relations to examine the availability of indicators from chapter 4 of the Monitor of Well-being & the SDGs for the Caribbean Netherlands (CN). The result of this exercise is a report that is published today.
The study examined the availability of the 267 ‘SDGplus’ indicators: these are the indicators used to monitor the SDGs in CBS’ Monitor of Wellbeing & the SDGs. These SDGplus indicators comprise the available official UN SDG indicators supplemented with indicators used in the Monitor of Well-being. The main relevant themes for the islands are poverty, the economy, nature and tourism.
Only a limited number of indicators are available for CN: 34. For 176 indicators, i.e. nearly 70 percent, no information is available. This does not necessarily mean that these indicators cannot be constructed. Take the indicator “Traffic deaths” for example: although CN does not have official cause of death statistics, causes of death are established and recorded by a medical practitioner and could be collected and analysed. Another example is “Satisfaction with commuting time to work”: this is the result of a survey that is not held in CN.
Although the number of indicators already available is relatively small, it could be important to start monitoring them in order to track developments in wellbeing and sustainability in CN.
It would be very valuable for the islands if this first stocktaking exercise were to be followed up on a regular basis, so that the islands also gain an insight in sustainable development.
Expanding the report with data on the other Caribbean countries within the Kingdom – Aruba, Curaçao and St Maarten – would also have a significant added value.