Fifth training on using SDMX for SDG data reporting

In the 7th Executive Committee held on 21 December 2020 member States requested ESCWA to establish and develop National Reporting Platforms (NRPs) dedicated to tracking progress towards the SDGs at the national levels (recommendation b).

To maintain the National Reporting Platforms (NRPs), ESCWA is working on many fronts to improve the flow of SDG data, enhance data quality and increase data availability through a set of bilateral revisions, and resolve unexplained discrepancies with custodian agencies; to facilitate the maintenance of existing national SDG data, the National Reporting Platforms (NRPs) are structured according to SDMX standards, SDMX is a technology for data exchange, sharing, and dissemination, it is time and cost-efficient.

The NRPs will be updated at least twice a year (beginning of the year and mid-year), to do so ESCWA provided SDMX capacity development on the use of SDMX, and developed its SDMX converter for SDGs to exchange SDGs data from NSOs to ESCWA and hence directly update the NRPs with quality data and on a timely manner.

This workshop is a continuation of a series of training on the use of SDMX for SDGs, it featured a recap of the key SDMX concepts and artifacts (DSD and content constraints), the process of mapping parameters, and stressed the importance of having standardized codes, furthermore, multiple scenarios of updating SDGs data through the SDMX converter for SDGs were presented in addition to presenting most common errors that can be encountered during the conversion process and how to resolve them.