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ISSN : 2518-3427
European Commission Beyond GDP
Measuring progress, wealth and wellbeing
In this issue - March 2017
 

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In the spotlight
Identifying indicators of progress for cities and sustainablle urban development.
More than half of the world’s population and three quarters of Europeans live in an urban area. Cities are nuclei for socio-economic and cultural activity, but they also present acute risks to society, from poverty and social exclusion, to excessive air pollution and flooding. Therefore, cities provide an important scale of analysis, presenting both challenges and opportunities for sustainable development.
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Interview
Dr Robert Ndugwa describes the UN’s work on city data and the New Urban Agenda
Dr. Robert Ndugwa is Head of the Global Urban Observatory (GUO) Unit at the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).... "Our function is to lead the global monitoring of the urban aspects of the SDGs, as well as the objectives of the New Urban Agenda, and other UN initiatives linked to cities."
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Carolien Gehrels explains the Sustainable Cities Index and its applications
"As European Cities Director, I work with Arcadis’ clients to improve the quality of life in cities. We combine local leadership with global expertise. For example, if a city has pressure on its mobility system, we try to find solutions to make mobility smarter and more sustainable. My role is to connect clients with the right specialists, and one approach is through city-to-city learning."
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Ramon Canal Oliveras talks about the use of city data and urban indicators in the city of Barcelona
Ramon Canal Oliveras is the Director of the Technical Programming Cabinet of Barcelona City Council...... "My role is to direct the Technical Programming Cabinet. It gathers municipal statistics, carries out public surveys on a variety of topics and elaborates studies on socio-economic aspects as well as on the performance of Barcelona City Council."
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Quote
"Many urban policies are formulated without access to the right data. Without knowledge of the drivers of their development, cities face the risk to find themselves in unintended destinations".

Eduardo López Moreno, Director of Research and Capacity Development at UNHABITAT

Eduardo Lopez Moreno
In brief
Belgium Complementary Indicators to GDP 2017
The Belgian Bureau Fédéral du Plan (BFP /Federal Planning Bureau) has published its report on Complementary Indicators to GDP, which aims at measuring people’s wellbeing and societal development at the federal level, as requested by the Law adopted on 14th March 2014. The 2017 report illustrates trends for 67 indicators grouped in 13 themes, and the aim is to show their evolution over time.
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The Inclusive Growth and Development Report 2017
The World Economic Forum has published the 2017 Inclusive Growth and Development Report which aims at assessing progress towards a socially inclusive economic growth in 109 countries. The report presents a new set of national Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), covering growth and development, inclusion, and intergenerational equity and sustainability.
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Germany Sustainability Strategy Report 2017
The new German Sustainability Strategy explicitly aligns the country’s development ambitions with the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as part of the country’s commitment to 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The strategy builds on the revision of a draft report launched in May 2016 and the results of a public consultation.
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Assessing progress towards the SDGs in the Netherlands
CBS (Statistics Netherlands) has conducted a baseline measurement of Netherlands’ progress in achieving the targets set by the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It represents the first attempt of measuring progress towards the SDG indicators in the Netherlands, setting a starting point for a debate between different parties, including policy assessment organizations, knowledge institutions etc.
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2016 Reform of Italy's Budget Law
Italy’s Chamber of Deputies introduced a reform of the Budget Law, approved in September 2016, to include in the Document of Economics and Finance the development in the past three years of a selected set of fair and sustainable well-being (BES/Benessere equo sostenibile) indicators.
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Monitoring the Goals of the 2030 Agenda: a first contribution from Switzerland
The Swiss Federal Statistical Office published a selection of 48 MONET indicators, presenting a first attempt to monitor the 17 SDGs in Switzerland. Progress towards the goals is based on a positive, negative or neutral indication of change across a total of 48 indicators for the 17 goals.
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Agenda
7 March 2017
WCCD Global Cities Summit adopts the Dubai Declaration 2017
10 March 2017
Adoption of SDGs indicator framework at the 48th Session of UN Statistical Commission
20 March 2017
15th Annual Meeting International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS)
28 March 2017
Fifth Meeting of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs)
16 July 2017
61st World Statistics Congress of the International Statistical Institute
5 April 2017
OECD Global Forum on Development: Working together to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

The Beyond GDP newsletter is issued up to 4 times a year by the European Commission, DG Environment.
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