A major accomplishment of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg was an increased focus on implementing sustainable development: "words are good, actions are better." This results-oriented focus raises several important questions:
1. What indicators are available for measuring progress towards our sustainable development goals?
2. What is the quality of those indicators and the data upon which they are based?
3. What international processes exist for creating and maintaining such indicators?
4. How does the U.S. Government participate in domestic and international indicator efforts?
This three-hour workshop was designed to educate senior U.S. policymakers on the current state of sustainable development indicators and stimulate discussion about how these indicators can be used to support our sustainable development objectives.
Tim Gulden is a Research Fellow within the Advanced Methods of Cooperative Security Studies at the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland.