SDGs with focus on Data Literacy

Dear colleagues,

I am pleased to be part of this event to discuss achievements and challenges we face in Albania related to the 2030 Agenda implementation.

The organization of this event, the recent establishment of the Interministerial SDG Committee, the activity of the Parliament Sub-Committee on Sustainable Development, the SDG integration into the new NSDEI 2030 are all notable efforts and timely as Albania is preparing for the 2023 SDG Summit that will be convened in September 2023, which marks the mid-point of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Heads of State and Government will gather at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to follow-up and review the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The outcome of the Summit will be a negotiated political declaration.

I would like to reflect for a moment on what the data tells us about Albania’s progress:

According to the SDG Index 2022, Albania scored 71.6/100 and ranked 61/163 – improvement of 3 places from 2021 (just behind North Macedonia 72.31 and Bosnia and Herzegovina 71.73). In terms of dynamics, Albania is on track to meet SDGs 1, 6, 7, 12 and 13 (where on some measures of CO2 emissions it has already met the target), moderately improving on SDGs 3, 5, 8, 9 and 17 but stagnating on SDGs 2, 4, 10, 11, 14, 15 and 16.

The SDG Baseline Assessment prepared in 2017 with UN support indicates that:

− 33% of the indicators from the global indicator framework are available in Albania, 24% is either available with efforts or partially available, 43% are currently not available and 7% are not applicable to Albania.

− Most indicators for SDG 3, SDG 1, SDG 5 and SDG 17 are available in Albania while SDG 12, SDG 14, SDG 16, SDG 11 are the SDGs with the lowest number of indicators from the global framework, with data available from the country.

− The degree of alignment for each SDG target with the national policies is 60%.

− INSTAT produces 61 statistical indicators, while most of the other indicatorsfor which data is available are based on information from other institutions in the country.

A 2019 UN Women assessment of the capacity of the statistical system to produce gender related SDGs indicators revealed that only 32 percent - or roughly one third - of indicators needed to monitor the 17 SDGs from a gender perspective are currently available. Gaps remain in key areas such as violence against women and girls; poverty and social inclusion; the gender pay gap regarding the source used for computation; gender digital divide and environment.

In addition, we need to ensure that data on gender and intersectionality is a default approach rather than an afterthought. Data for the most vulnerable, including women and children with disabilities, Roma children, children economically exploited, and those in street situations are almost non-existent or are produced on ad-hoc basis. Hence, these vulnerable groups remain invisible as well as gender gaps within these groups.

The case of data collection and generation at local/municipal level remains problematic, hampering the local planning and monitoring of situation of the rights of vulnerable groups and gender disparities at the nucleus level of the governance structure.

Sectorial and municipal management information systems are either lacking or designed mostly to produce data on performance of institutions and the human resources in institutions dealing with statistics and data analysis is limited or non- existent.

The primary question is how to achieve the Agenda2030 when we live in challenging times - with high youth unemployment and persisting gender gaps across the sub-region; vulnerable groups suffer prejudice and well-evidenced limitations in terms of access to services and opportunities; migration is a challenge on multiple levels – and with many challenges to measure any progress on reforms at home!

For Albania and the Western Balkan region, this means both working together more, and looking towards Europe. It is clear that – at least in terms of political bandwidth – the dominant agenda in the Western Balkans is accession to the European Union. It is an over-arching development priority and a key development driver for these countries. Employing the framework of Agenda2030 will help the Government express the aims of its reforms.

Incorporating national targets for SDGs within national development plans, aligning indicators with European statistical standards, or using the Agenda 2030 movement to deepen transparency through participatory and decentralized monitoring – all of these are examples of synergies across these two transformative processes. EU accession and Agenda2030 can accelerate each other…

To enter the SDGs into broader public consciousness and into the development discourse, by connecting it to the general pro-EU sentiment, the UN’s role is critical in supporting the government to persevere in pursuit of broad policy and programming platforms for accelerating progress towards both EU accession and achieving the SDGs and to identify indicator-level convergence and development policy coherence between the two agendas at the country level.

The UN in Albania, through its fourth Cooperation Framework in the country for 2022-2026 and the Albania SDG Acceleration Fund is implementing initiatives in three broad policy and programming platforms for accelerating progress towards EU accession and achieving the SDGs: (i) human capital development and social inclusion; (ii) sustainable, resilient and green economic growth and resource management; and (iii) effective, people centered governance, rule of law, human rights and gender equality.

Let me give some examples of our support:

− capacity-building and technical assistance to support knowledge-building concerning specific chapters of the EU acquis.

− MAPS platform to assess whether national development policies are aligned with the SDGs and their effectiveness in supporting transitions to sustainable development—either domestically or in international comparison.

− developing feasible solutions and identifying fiscal space to progressively increase SDG-related spending. Part of this assistance involves drafting of the INFF –a new approach to financing that seeks to mobilize additional (and non-traditional) resources for financing sustainable development.

− make use of UN’s central role in sharing best practices to strengthen implementation structures that aid coherence both horizontally and vertically, foster multi-stakeholder participation, and help prepare for the longer term. Some of the current structures in place are established with our support (i.e High level SDG committee and working group, Parliamentary SDG sub-committee)

− make use of UN’s guidance on the production of statistics for measuring sustainable development, as well as strengthening capacity for reporting. This in turn would help to support and accelerate implementation efforts, to assist with the localization of targets, and to strengthen follow-up and review mechanisms at the country level.

− strengthening national data and analytical capacity on SDG5 and gender dimensions of all SDGs. Some examples of our ongoing offers in this regards are: The Gender Equality Facility programme in support of implementing the EU Gender Equality aquis; The “Women Count” programme in support of production, accessibility and use of gender data and statistics to inform policies and actions; The Country Gender Equality Brief.

− At the supra-national level, make use of the UN’s role to advise and provide guidance through the regional and global follow-up and review processes: The Regional Forum on Sustainable Development coordinated by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe; the High-Level Political Forum and the preparation of Voluntary National Reviews; The Food System and Transforming Education Summits; the SDG Summit, the Summit of the Future; to name a few.

The UN is committed to support governments to place a stronger focus towards the national implementation of the 2030 Agenda as an accelerator of progress both towards EU accession and to address national development challenges that go beyond the EU accession agenda. The SDGs Frameworks should serve as an overarching umbrella of national long-term commitments.

Our urgent call would be:

1. to conduct Census;

2. provide the necessary state budget in 2025-2026 for the undertaking of the Multiple Clusters Indicators Survey, Time Use Survey and VAW prevalence survey;

3. improve and expand the use of administrative data and their disaggregation to inform central and local level actions and data driven interventions actions and data driven interventions;

4. strengthen INSTAT’s role as a national coordination and quality assurance body for the entire statistical system including the sectorial information systems

5. Strengthen INSTAT’s and other data producers’ capacity to collect, disseminate and communicate data, including the use of new technology.

I would like to emphasize that disaggregated data and statistics are key to successful implementation and monitoring of the 2030 Agenda and to ensure that no one is left behind. The high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by gender, income, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location, and other characteristics should be prioritized to shape and generate better solutions for most vulnerable groups.

Albania has the knowledge and the means – and the political will – to drive forward the implementation of the SDGs. Our ambition should be to use the real challenges that the country faces as the starting point for providing comprehensive solutions.

Thank you!