Introduction

The report can be read by theme. Here the indicators are sub-divided across the three themes to which UNCTADs work contributes: multilateralism for trade & development; productive growth; and structural transformation. Through this thematic lens, a wide range of indicators are presented and issues discussed, including: recent trends in trade, including barriers to trade, and policies to promote trade; investment, transport infrastructure, ICT for sustainable development, and debt sustainability; and industry and high value-added and sustainability.

The SDG indicators presented in this report are also categorised by goal. The goals and indicators selected reflect UNCTAD’s broad mandate of economic and sustainable development. In some cases, UNCTAD is the custodian or co-custodian agency for the indicator. These indicators are supplemented with other complementary indicators. The SDG indicators presented in this report are:

The SDG indicators, which are essentially performance metrics, do not give a comprehensive picture of development. A lot of other data and statistics are required to fully understand the breath of activities underway. UNCTAD runs a wide-ranging capacity development programme. This report presents some case studies from UNCTAD’s development programme from a statistical perspective – presenting UNCTAD’s activities and successes in hard numbers. These case studies are important as they also illustrate the Results Based Management approach being adopted by UNCTAD – helping us to improve our responsiveness and accountability to member states.

Every year, the SDG Pulse will highlight a specific aspect of the 2030 Agenda and discuss this issue from the slant or perspective of statistics. For this first edition, some aspects of inequality are discussed, including global economic and income inequalities, and also an emerging new dimension for inequality in a data driven world – access to data.