Better measurement of progress in SDG with emphasis on SDG-4 in India
- Sociology International Journal
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Satyendra Nath Chakrabartty
Abstract
Avoiding scaling and selection of weights and replacing zero target of each indicator by a small value say 0.0001, the paper provides a simple method of multiplicative aggregation of indicators of i-th dimension of SDG-4 at t-th year → dimension scores ( )it →D country score ( 4SDG t−Ι )→Global SDG-4 4( )SDG tGlobal − . 4SDG t−Ι reflects position of i-th country at t-th year by a continuous monotonically increasing variable as an absolute measure satisfying desired properties like meaningful aggregation, Time-reversal test, formation of chain indices,
etc. and offering significant benefits. The index is not affected by outliers and produces no bias for developed or underdeveloped countries. It helps to identify relative importance of the dimensions and critical dimensions/indicators requiring managerial attention, assess progress of SDG-4 over time, find distanceof 4SDG t−Ι from the SDG targets. It enables testing hypothesis of equality of 4SDG t−Ι across time and space, and is applicable to other SDGs. The proposed method contributes to improve aggregation of SDG indicators avoiding major limitations of existing methods. Policy makers and researchers can take advantages of the multiplicative aggregation. Future studies may empirically estimate distribution of 4SDG t−Ι and find effect of progress in SDG-4 on other SDGs for a comprehensive SDG progress report for effective monitoring the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
Keywords
SDG indicators, geometric mean, progress assessment, progress path, cosine similarity, statistical tests, global SDG-4 index
