Mo Ibrahim Foundation on strengthening Africa’s data landscape to meet SDGs

Strengthening Africa's fragmented data landscape is crucial for meeting development targets, according to a new Governance report by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. The report highlights the importance of closing 'data gaps' in tracking Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ensuring that Agenda 2063 can be effectively monitored and measured. Nathalie Delapalme, the Executive Director of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, joined CNBC Africa to discuss the findings and the way forward. Delapalme emphasized the significance of leveraging the foundation's index dataset, which provides a comprehensive overview of African governance and statehood. With Africa currently halfway through the implementation of the 2063 African agenda and only a decade away from the 2030 SDGs deadline, assessing progress and identifying key challenges is crucial. Despite making positive strides, there are still significant gaps that need to be addressed to successfully achieve the outlined goals. The report identified a strong correlation between good performance in global public governance and the key focus areas of both agenda 2030 and agenda 2063. These key areas include education, health, gender and youth inclusion, peace, security, and strong institutions. Delapalme stressed that success in these areas is closely linked to the level of public governance in African countries. Delving into specific topics such as education, the report highlighted positive progress in access to education but raised concerns about the quality of education. The mismatch between education supply and market needs poses a challenge that must be addressed to fulfill the goals effectively. One overarching concern highlighted in the report is the lack of sound data for governance, which Delapalme referred to as the 'missing SDG.' Insufficient data hinders efficient monitoring of goal implementation and policymaking. Without reliable data, it becomes challenging to track progress accurately and make informed decisions. A significant observation from the report is that only half of the indicators for agenda 2063 and six out of the 17 SDGs can be quantified for Africa. This scarcity of quantifiable data underscores the urgent need for a stronger commitment from African governments and their partners to enhance the data landscape on the continent. To address these challenges, Delapalme proposed strengthening the capacity of African National Statistics officers and tapping into alternative data sources such as mobile technologies and private sector data. Collaborative efforts to bolster and share data resources are essential for robust monitoring and assessment of progress towards development goals. The report also highlighted the limited quantifiability of targets and indicators, with less than 20% of agenda 2063 targets directly quantifiable and only 40% of SDG indicators having sufficient data for accurate tracking. Delapalme emphasized the critical need for collective action to improve data quality and availability. In conclusion, Delapalme reiterated the fundamental role of data in driving effective policy formulation and implementation. She underscored that without sound data, sound policies are unattainable. The call to strengthen Africa's data landscape echoes the imperative for data-driven decision-making and measurement of progress towards sustainable development. Addressing data gaps and enhancing data quality are key steps towards realizing Africa's development aspirations.