In September in New York, world leaders agreed on the transformational 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with an ambitious set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets. Building on the work of many experts and wide consultation, the United Nations Statistical Commission’s Inter-Agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) is working to define the set of indicators that will form the backbone of the measurement that will be essential to ensure the envisaged transformation.

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While agreement has been reached on indicators for many targets, on some there is still no consensus. SDG 16 urges us to “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.” Yet, despite enormous progress in recent years on the measurement of peace, justice and inclusion, there is still work to be done to reach consensus on the measurement of some aspects of SDG16, notably targets 16.1, 16.3, 16.7 and 16.10. The latest documents on the consultation process can be found at: http://unstats.un.org/sdgs/

This expert meeting will provide an opportunity for representatives from National Statistical Offices, UN agencies, research, policy and other civil society organizations and networks to get together in a retreat environment on the outskirts of Oslo and consider in detail the feasibility of different indicators under consideration for these four targets, possible empirical basis for the choice, as well as the implications for the development of national and sub-national level indicators within planning frameworks. It will build on the extensive consultations already conducted, particularly through the UNDP-convened Virtual Network on Indicators for Sustainable Development Goal 16. It will also provide an input for the Praia City Group on Governance Statistics, established under the UN Statistical Commission which is addressing the conceptualization, methodology and instruments for producing governance statistics.