Indicator accountability or policy shrinking? Multistakeholder partnerships in reviews of the sustainable development goals

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with their 169 targets and 231 indicators epitomise the trend of global governance by numbers. This article suggests the notion of a global “indicator reporting trajectory” that is shaped by three main elements: the politics of indicators, a reporting infrastructure and indicator advocacy. I propose that indicator reporting trajectories may result either in policy shrinking or in indicator accountability. The idea of an indicatory reporting trajectory is empirically illustrated with the case of indicators on multistakeholder partnerships of SDG 17. High expectations are put on such partnerships to accelerate SDG realization, but they face several accountability challenges. The analysis shows how indicators that capture globally agreed (but contested) goals can silently disappear due to a lack of data and measurability during long follow-up processes. I argue that there is a great risk for policy shrinking with regard to multistakeholder partnerships under SDG 17 and that this has implications for accountability and, in the end, for the realization of the 2030 Agenda.