Responding to the call to share ideas, efforts and best practices what we should do to reach, or what to do to achieve the SDGs the goals the following. From the moment the Goals were agreed I realised that these goals were catchy, digestible and target oriented for the public at large but not realistic. is that wrong, no, definitely not because the targets were super ambitious and a good indicator how the (development) world was progressing along those indicators. They have a projection timeline of about 14 years and we knew already upfront that to achieve the goals it would require 1tn US$ a year (for all targets) at minimum. Even with the money available it would still not be met. The indicators provide however a good benchmark of progress.
My role with the SDG is in particular 16, Social Justice and within that goal ‘Access to Information’. Access to information is in my view one of the key drivers of development as information is knowledge and information is power. Ensuring access to information empowers communities to held their governments accountable and above all provide them the means to see if money is attuned to their needs. Access to information is only one flipside of the coin. The other side of the coin is the usability of the information. On both side I see progress for instance in the number of countries that have become a member of the Open Government Partnership. membership comes with conditions and I notice the willingness of countries to become serious to improve access to information for their citizens. Here you can see the complexities of the SDG as this subject of access to information, transparency is also covered in other Goals. e.g. enforcing progress in other goals well.