Sustainable Development Goals Index: Chandigarh 3rd after Shimla, Coimbatore

The SDG Urban Index and Dashboard ranked 56 urban areas on 77 SDG indicators across 46 targets of the SDG framework. The data on these indicators have been sourced from official data sources such as NFHS, NCRB, U-DISE, data portals of various ministries, and other government data sources.

Chandigarh emerged as a good performer in Quality Education and “Clean water and sanitation”.

The index and dashboard highlights the strengths and gaps of ULB-level data, monitoring, and reporting systems. It was stated that tools such as this index and dashboard will contribute to the creation of an ecosystem in which all stakeholders will be equipped to adopt and implement data-driven decision-making.

The statistical methodology for the SDG Urban Index is drawn from the globally accepted methodology developed by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).

A comprehensive list of 77 indicators, covering 46 global SDG targets across 15 SDGs, are used in the index. SDG 14 (life below water) has not been included as it is relevant for only coastal areas, which are only a few of the selected cities, and SDG 17 (partnerships for the goals) has been excluded as the progress of its targets are monitored at the national level. While progress under SDG 15 (life on land) has been measured using two indicators, they have not been used in estimating the scores, owing to lack of adequate coverage.

The indicators are aligned with MoSPI’s National Indicator Framework. It was stated that relevance to SDG targets and data availability at the urban level are the most important criteria for indicator selection.

Out of 56 urban areas ranked in the index, 44 are with population of above one million. Twelve are state capitals with population of less than a million.

For each SDG, the urban areas are ranked on a scale of 0-100. A score of 100 implies that the urban area has achieved the targets set for 2030, a score of 0 implies that it is the farthest from achieving the targets among the selected urban areas.

“Overall or composite urban area scores are then generated from the goal-wise scores to measure aggregate performance of the urban area,” it was specified.