SDG Tracker

This is a new commitment included in the 2018–2019 OGP Action Plan.¹ The AoG committed to the following:

3a) “activation of the internal electronic system (the internal operations system will be accessible only for governmental agencies) [of the Tracker]”

According to the AoG representative interviewed for this report, in 2019, the AoG activated the SDG Tracker internal electronic system . The system was created by the Digital Governance Agency (DGA). Public agencies are responsible for entering data into the system, which is then finally verified by the AoG, which serves as the secretariat of the SDG Council. As the AoG representative noted, relevant public servants responsible for implementing the SDG objectives and indicators were trained on how to use the new tracker’s electronic system. Each indicator has a designated person from each agency who is responsible for reporting progress on the indicator. The SDG monitoring through this system started in 2020. Monitoring is done annually in February of each year.²

3b) “activation/functional setup of the SDG web-page, including SDG Tracker and other components, where the internal system data are generated”

After the AoG verification, data generated through the internal system is published on the tracker’s web page at sdg.gov.ge. This web page allows users to compare baseline and progress indicators across different attributes, such as gender and age, and analyse the presented data through a visualisation diagram. However, the up-to-date and disaggregated data on the progress of SDG indicator implementation, including those covering the fight against corruption, is missing on the tracker. Further, the module on projects is empty, while the calendar provides information about a handful of activities conducted. When browsing the SDG Tracker web page multiple times and failing to find the data needed, the user is likely to give up and stop using this page. Website analytics are not done and there is no available data on how many people use the portal.³

3c) “promoting the SDG Tracker as the governmental policy monitoring and assessment possibility”

There is the SDG Council⁴ and four thematic working groups on democratic governance,⁵ social inclusion,⁶ economic development,⁷ and sustainable energy and environmental protection.⁸ The published list of members⁹ indicate that these are multi-party working groups composed of public agencies, CSOs, international donors, private sector and academia. According to the published terms of reference,¹⁰ the group meetings are organised once a year. Each working group has a chair representing the public agency and two co-chairs from the specialised UN agency and the civil society organisation. The latter is a rotating position and is nominated from the group member CSOs. The first voluntary national review on SDG implementation was produced in 2016¹¹ and the second, more comprehensive one in 2020. The latter was focused on human capital, economic development and democratic governance.¹² The challenge identified by CSO respondents and independent experts is that many, including students and other stakeholders working on public policy or public administration issues let alone the general public, are not aware that the SDG Tracker web page exists. Therefore, it is hard to tell if the tracker has had any impact on the fight against corruption.

3d) “and activation of the information part of SDG Tracker web-page – placement of a schedule/information related to all the projects, ongoing or planned activities at a national scale”

The section on information on on-going or planned projects is empty on the tracker’s web page while the calendar provides information about a handful of activities conducted.³

Overall conclusion: considering that the tracker’s internal system data that is only available to government agencies and is not fully generated on the tracker’s web page for public consumption, the information on on-going or planned projects is not included on the web page and the tracker has not been promoted to the public as committed in the 2018–2019 OGP Action Plan, this commitment is only partially fulfilled.