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CAPABILITY MATURITY MODELS TOWARDS IMPROVED QUALITY OF THE
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS INDICATORS DATA

2
3
1
Ignacio Marcovecchio , Mamello Thinyane , Elsa Estevez , Pablo Fillottrani
1
1 United Nations University, Institute on Computing and Society (UNU-CS), Macao SAR, China
2,3 Computer Science and Engineering Department, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina
2 Computer Science and Engineering Institute, CONICET, Argentina
3 Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas Provincia de Buenos Aires
ignacio@unu.edu, mamello@unu.edu, ece@cs.uns.edu.ar, prf@cs.uns.edu.ar

ABSTRACT build on the success of the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs), a set of time-bound and quantified targets agreed
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September of 2000 during the UN Millennium
demands coping with the data revolution for sustainable Declaration [1]. In particular, SDGs prioritize areas not
development: the integration of new and traditional data to considered before such as climate change, economic
produce high-quality information that is detailed, timely, inequality, innovation, sustainable consumption, peace, and
and relevant for multiple purposes and to a variety of users. justice [2]. The seventeen goals aim at reaching 169 targets,
The quality of this information, defined by its completeness, which will be monitored and evaluated through 230
uniqueness, timeliness, validity, accuracy, and consistency, indicators. The UN Statistical Commission [3] is the body
is crucial for appropriate decision making; which leads to within the UN system responsible for the development of a
improvements in advancing national development global indicator framework for monitoring the progress
imperatives for reaching the goals and targets of the towards the achievement of the SDGs. The current
sustainable development agenda. In this paper, we posit measurement framework divides the 230 indicators into
that the more mature the organizations within the national three tiers: Tier I comprising indicators for which statistical
data ecosystems are, the higher the quality of data that they methodologies are agreed and global data are regularly
produce. The paper motivates for the adoption and available; Tier II comprising indicators with clear statistical
mainstreaming of organizational Capability Maturity methodologies, but little available data; and Tier III for
Models within the SGDs activities. It also presents the indicators with no agreed standards or methodology, and no
preliminary formulation of a multidimensional prescriptive data. The latter represents 32% of the total number of
Capability Maturity Model to assess and improve the indicators. On top of this, 15 indicators have yet to be
maturity of organizations within national data ecosystems assigned to a tier [4].
and, therefore, the effective monitoring of the progress on
the SDG targets through the production of better quality A crucial component of the SDGs agenda is the monitoring
indicators data. Furthermore, the paper provides of progress towards the achievement of the targets, as well
recommendation towards addressing the challenges within as the development of suitable technology tools and
the increasingly data-driven domain of social indicators platforms to support the activities of the different
monitoring. stakeholders [5]. It is expected that the monitoring of the
SDG indicators will demand further efforts to take
Keywords — Sustainable Development Goals, advantage of the achievements of MDGs and to produce
Capability Maturity Model, Data Revolution, Institutional reliable and high-quality data that can cover the new
Capacity subjects, while ensuring that ‘nobody is left behind’ [6].
However, there are deep-rooted capacity challenges for
1. INTRODUCTION many countries in measuring progress on the proposed
SDGs [7]. The capacity of key players in the data
In September 2015, leaders of 193 countries agreed on ecosystem, including governments, institutions, and
seventeen Global Goals for Sustainable Development individuals, also needs to be enhanced to be able to deliver
which set off a world-wide call to protect the planet and and take advantage of this data. There is, therefore, a
ensure peace and prosperity for all people by the year 2030. universal imperative to ensure that all countries have an
These goals, known as the SDGs, define the global effective national statistical system, capable of measuring
development agenda for the upcoming years and present and producing high-quality statistics in line with global
challenging objectives that must balance the three pillars of standards and expectations [6].
sustainable development: social inclusion, economic
development, and environmental sustainability. The SDGs

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