Measuring the SDGs an initial picture for the Netherlands

Foreword
In 2015, the members of the United Nations (UN) adopted an agenda for sustainable
development. All 193 members of the UN signed up to an ambitious package of goals:
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This commits the UN members, including the
Netherlands, to eliminate poverty and hunger, to protect human rights and to promote
gender equality. In total, the package includes 17 goals for the period 2015–2030.
To monitor progress, the UN has drafted a list of indicators: the Sustainable Development
Goals Indicators. This publication shows which of these indicators can be measured by
CBS (Statistics Netherlands) based on available statistics and which indicators require
additional efforts or observations to be made.
Currently, one third of the indicators can be measured using the available data; therefore,
for many indicators, data must still be collected. This publication serves as a starting
point for a broad public debate between parties including NGOs, policy analysis
organisations, knowledge institutes and ministries about how progress in the area of
SDGs can and should be measured in the Netherlands.
The global picture that arises from the SDG measurements is that in many SDG domains
for which figures are available, progress is being made in the Netherlands. This is in
particular the case in the economic field, but also with respect to the constitutional
state and institutions and in some areas of health and education. However, there are
domains in which the Netherlands scores less well. For example, the Netherlands still
emits high levels of greenhouse gases per inhabitant and therefore was ranked 25 (of
28) in the European Union (EU) in 2014; furthermore, the proportion of renewable energy
with respect to the total energy consumption is still very low: 5.9 percent in 2015; and
the healthy life expectancy of Dutch women is relatively low compared to that in other
European countries (ranked at 20 of 28 in 2014). Other domains in which the Netherlands
scores less well concern income inequality between men and women and feelings of
discrimination. The same applies to nature and biodiversity, the environmental pressure
the Netherlands exerts on other countries, sustainable food production, waste, water
and sustainable fishery. Finally, the Netherlands has an average score within the EU
with respect to the number of people who have completed higher education, R&D
expenditure, and the number of patent applications submitted. The pursuit of sustainable
development is an aspect of the pursuit of well-being in the broadest sense. Within this
framework, the parliamentary Temporary Committee on a Broad Definition of Welfare
recently made several recommendations. One is the recommendation to transform the
Sustainability Monitor of the Netherlands, as published in 2009, 2011 and 2014, into a
Monitor Brede Welvaart (Monitor of Well-being). The set of Sustainable Development Goals
Indicators described in this publication may in the future become one of the building
blocks of such a Monitor. Therefore, this year, this special report about SDGs replaces the
Sustainability Monitor of the Netherlands.
Director-General
Dr T.B.P.M. Tjin-A-Tsoi
The Hague/Heerlen/Bonaire, January 2017
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