Tracking SDG 2, unofficially and preliminarly

The unofficial Preliminary Sustainable Development Goal Index and Dashboard are (is?) out, courtesy of SDSN, and open for comment. Here’s the list of indicators they used (click to embiggen).

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Focus on the indicators relating to SDG 2, which is “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.” That would be the following:

  • Prevalence of undernourishment (% of population)
  • Cereal yield (kg/ha)

Uhm. What happened to the double burden of malnutrition? And both rice and pearl millet are cereals: do we really want to use the yield of such a nutritionally narrow but agronomically heterogenous crop category to track agricultural development globally? Also, not much there relating specifically to Target 2.5:

2.5 by 2020 maintain genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants, farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at national, regional and international levels, and ensure access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge as internationally agreed.

Because we do now have a good indicator, and indeed a decent baseline, for some aspects of that.

2 Replies to “Tracking SDG 2, unofficially and preliminarly”

  1. Are you suggesting two indicators are insufficient? So a recommendation for improvement might include:

    Pulse yield (kg/ha)
    Oilseed yield (kg/ha)
    Vitamin sufficiency (% of population)
    Mineral sufficiency (% of population)
    ??

    Or, what changes would you prefer?

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