Assessing regional progress toward the sustainable development goals (SDGs): Whither the Caribbean?

This paper assesses the state of monitoring and reporting on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Caribbean. This assessment evaluates regional progress by analyzing the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) of the seven Caribbean countries that have presented baseline reports between 2017 and 2020. Using this data, we present an analytical tool in the form of a dashboard on a web platform to provide a visual narrative of the current state of SDG monitoring in the region. The results show uneven coverage of the 17 goals, with only 1 goal being measured and reported on by all countries. Further, the results show that the region has largely focused on the goals related to ‘people’ or the society, with little emphasis on goals related to the environment, despite the geographic location which makes these countries susceptible to man-made and natural disasters. Our analysis reveals the significant data gaps that exist; 35% of all SDG indicators are not currently measured by any country in the region. This novel regional assessment for the Caribbean fills an existing gap in evidence-based assessments as there is no aggregation of SDG data for the region in existing dashboards and indexes, which makes it difficult to see at a glance how the region is progressing. We believe regional reporting on the progress of the SDGs provides significant opportunities for knowledge sharing and peer-learning that can facilitate a collaborative effort for these small island developing countries that are constrained by small size, limited resources and statistical data capacity.