Measuring the SDGs an initial picture for the Netherlands

At the end of 2015, the members of the United Nations reached agreement on an
agenda for sustainable development. This comprises an ambitious package of goals:
Sustainable Development Goals. Throughout the world, these SDGs are viewed as
one of the main policy themes for the coming 15 years. The first SDG indicator reports
have now been published. These measure where the countries currently stand.
However, various critical remarks were also voiced about the SDGs, as they do not
explain the trade-offs between the various goals.
3.1 The 2030 Agenda and the SDGs
In September 2015, the leaders of the governments of the 193 member states of
the United Nations adopted an historic agreement concerning the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development (UN, 2015). The 17 goals for sustainable development
(SDGs, also referred to as Global Goals) apply to the period 2015–2030 and are
the successors to the Millennium Goals. In 2000, the world leaders adopted the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were to halve the major problems
in the poorest developing countries in 15 years. The goals covered the domains of
poverty, hunger, primary education, environment (including drinking water and
sanitation), gender inequality, child and maternal mortality and mortality resulting
from communicable diseases.
While the millennium goals mainly focused on alleviating poverty in developing
countries, the 2030 agenda is a broad sustainability agenda for all countries, therefore
also for western countries including the Netherlands. The agreements made are not
legally binding but are a best-effort obligation. Countries are called on to translate
the global SDGs into national goals and policy and to commit to doing everything
possible to contribute to justice, safety and prosperity in the world. Currently, the
Dutch government is developing initiatives designed to lead to a national SDG strategy
(House of Representatives, 2016a; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2016).
Translating the global SDGs into national goals for 2030 comprises establishing any
new goals for themes for which the Netherlands has formulated no or only partial
policy goals, and updating the current goals for 2030. Incidentally, it must be pointed
out that the list of sustainability goals is the outcome of a political negotiation process
and therefore does not contain all relevant themes. For instance, there are no clear
goals regarding knowledge capital, which is in particular of major importance for
western countries.
3.2 The first SDG indicator reports
Mid-July 2016, two reports were published that compare the starting position of
various countries (including the Netherlands) for achieving the SDG targets.
The UN goals for sustainable development 15