Sustainable Development in Malta: Statistical Information on the 2030 Agenda in Malta - 2021
Date Published: 16th December 2021
Summary:
On 25 September 2015, Heads of States at the General Assembly of the United Nations (UNGA) adopted resolution A/RES/70/1 on ‘Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’. Heads of States recognised that “…eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development”, and resolved to “…free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet”.
The Millennium Development Goals had put emphasis on the social pillar of poverty. However, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognised that ending poverty and other deprivations are linked with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests. The scale and ambition of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development are reflected by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets, all of which are integrated and indivisible and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental.
Salient Points of Publication:
In its Resolution 71/313, the United Nations General Assembly highlighted that official statistics and data from national statistical systems constitute the basis needed for the SDG global indicator framework, and stressed the role of National Statistical Offices as the coordinator of their respective National Statistical Systems. The NSO is not featured in the Sustainable Development Act as the entity responsible to coordinate requests related to the Sustainable Development Indicators (SDIs). However, as the competent authority in Malta responsible for the production and coordination of official statistics, the NSO recognises the need to address the gaps in the production of statistics for the SDIs, by inter alia strengthening coordination between the NSO and other national authorities that produce statistics.
For the past year the NSO has been working to identify existing data sources and statistical products (national and international) that are compliant with the methodologies of the UN SDIs framework. Moreover, to reduce the data-gaps the NSO has also identified other data and statistical products, which although not in conformity with the methodology of the SDIs are still relevant for the monitoring of progress towards achieving the SDG targets. The NSO has also identified other national statistics that can supplement the UN indicators and proxies with additional information relevant for a Maltese context.
The results of these processes are reflected in the “Sustainable Development in Malta: Statistical Information on the 2030 Agenda in Malta – 2021”. This publication collates all existing data related to Malta, and presents them as statistics related to the monitoring of the Sustainable Development targets.
The salient points of the publication are:
- 45% of Malta-related statistics are produced in line, or similar, to the methodologies prepared by the UN Statistics Division, international organisations and custodian agencies in charge of the monitoring of the SDGs.
- 18% of SDIs are covered with other statistical information that can be used as proxies to the official SDI framework.
- 37% of the SDIs framework are not addressed, directly or indirectly, with existing data.
- 76% of the data available which is used to monitor the SDGs is presented in the publication by means of 236 charts and tables.
- The most complete SDG, in terms of data availability, is SDG 3—Ensure healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages—with data covering 84.6% of the targets concerning SDG 3.
- The SDG with its targets least covered with data in this publication is SDG 17 – Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development, with only 21.1%.
- 50.4% of the indicators presented in the publication show improvement in relation to the respective targets when compared to 2010 and taking also into consideration fluctuations in the trend between 2010 and 2019.
- 21.3% of the indicators presented in the publication show worsening in relation to the respective targets when compared to 2010 and taking also into consideration fluctuations in the trend between 2010 and 2019.
- 14.3% of the indicators presented in the publication show no substantial change when compared with 2010 data.
- In view of limited longitudinal data, 14% of the data presented cannot be used to assess the extent of progress towards the respective SDG targets.
