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Sustainable development indicators: food for thought or efficient tools for decision-making?
The document discusses the evolution and roles of sustainable development indicators (SDIs) in Finland, highlighting their instrumental, conceptual, and symbolic uses. It outlines the history of SDIs in Finland through several phases, their alignment with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, and addresses issues related to data availability and relevance. Additionally, it explores the challenges of creating impactful indicators and the societal factors influencing their effectiveness.
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Sustainable development indicators: food for thought or efficient tools for decision-making?
- 1. Sustainable development indicators: food for thoughtor efficient tools for decision- making? Jari Lyytimäki Finnish Environment Institute Transition management and food business course University of Helsinki, 23.4.2020
- 2. What is anindicator? Indicator Statistics Data Reality of some kind Index or composite indicator
- 3. What role isindicator supposed to play? • Instrumental roles • Direct and intentional use of indicators as basis of decision-making or evaluation • Conceptual roles • Indicators as tools that enhance learning and creation of shared understanding, or ‘enlightenment’, or that sensitise the user to a problem or a situation • Indirect and long-term effects • Symbolic roles • Indicator is there just because of some routines or institutional requirements • Political and ritualistic roles • Legitimising decisions already taken or policies already in place, convincing others to support a position, deflecting criticism • Tactical use as a façade in order to give the impression of evidence-based policy- making.
- 4. Potential unintended effectsof indicators Source: Lyytimäki et al 2014
- 5. Sustainable development indicatorsin Finland
- 6. History of SDindicators in Finland • Phase I (1996–2000): large sets that measured what experts thought relevant for sustainable development (SD). • Phase II (2001–2008): tailoring of smaller indicator sets to be used for specific purposes (the leaflets). • Phase III (2009–2016): www.findicator.fi online service that included more than just national SDIs. (Updated automatically, a Google search optimized, timeliness and accessibility). • Phase IV (2017–): the Findicator service needs to be renewed and the national SDIs moved to a new location with stronger emphasis on use. Source: Rosenström 2018
- 7. Finnish SD policymodel: two indicator sets Statistics Finland Agenda 2030 SDGs Other national level indicator sets, e.g.: Findicator.fi Luonnontila.fi Sotkanet Agricator Society’s Commitment to SD
- 8. The Finnish nationalSD indicator set • Indicators consisting of quantitative data series and qualitative interpretations • 10 indicator baskets, each containing about 4 indicators • Organised around 8 national SD objectives • Based on collaborative and data-driven preparation process Indicator baskets State of nature and the environment Resource-wise economy and carbon neutral society Consumption and public procurements Housing and communities Prerequisites of health Social inequality Social exclusion and inclusivity Working life, quality and change Education and development of competence Global responsibility and policy coherence https://kestavakehitys.fi/en/monitoring
- 9. Structure of indicators •Indicators present selected quantitative time series and qualitative interpretations • Indicators describe • current situation • comparison with target levels • Finland’s recent development • possible reservations related to the indicator
- 10. A closer lookon the Finnish national SD indicators related to food Wikimedia Commons Jorge Royan / http://www.royan.com.ar / CC-BY-SA-3.0
- 11. Food issues addressedunder ”Consumption and public procurements” ”Foodstuff consumption” as the main indicator: interpretation emphasizes environmental and health gains of plant-based diet GHG emissions from household consumption of food also mentioned: note the timelag
- 12. Other baskets emphasize environmentaleffects of agriculture as secondary, indirect framing of food State of nature and the environment Resource-wise economy and carbon neutral society
- 13. What about theother set? UN-based SDG indicators
- 14. The internationally orientedSDG indicator set • National indicator set based on the UN-based Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) released in Feb 2019. • Indicators defined by ”Inter-agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators” • 17 goals, 169 targets, 232 indicators defined by the UN expert group • Finnish version prepared by the Statistic Finland, updated continuously, focusing on quantitative data series • http://www.stat.fi/tup/kestavan-kehityksen-yk- indikaattorit-agenda2030_en.html
- 15. Finland is oneof the leading countries… …but the task of information collection is demanding • Finnish set of SDG indicators released in February 2019 showed that national data were missing for nearly half (47%) of the indicators. • The set prepared for the UN (VNR report, summer 2020) includes about two thirds (64%) of SDG indicators
- 16. A closer lookon the Finnish SDG indicators related to food Wikimedia Commons Jorge Royan / http://www.royan.com.ar / CC-BY-SA-3.0 Based on draft version of the VNR report compiled by the Statistics Finland
- 17. SDG2 focuses onfood issues
- 18.
- 19. Indicators with some data: Undernourishment, geneticdiversity, export subsidies
- 20.
- 21. Surprisingly poor coverageof food-related issues by indicators elsewhere in the SDG framework • Indicators describing food loss (SDG12), sustainable fish stocks (SDG14) (Data missing for Finland) Indirect links: • Efficiency of water use (SDG6) • Ecological footprint (SDG8, SDG12) Worth of noting: • Food (and agriculture) issues not mentioned in SDG13 on taking urgent action to combat climate change or in SDG15 on protecting terrestial ecosystems
- 22. To summarize: Threekey indicator struggles • Struggling with data availabily to describe relevant issues • Struggle between the trustworthiness and societal salience • Struggle between national relevance and international comparability
- 23. Afterthoughts: What makes asocietally influential indicator? Indicator factors • What kind of content makes an indicator good or poor? • Importance of data quality Process & user factors • Through what kind of processess information is collected, modified and communicated? • Importance of interaction and feedback Context factors • What kinds of external issues are influencing? • Importance of putting indicators into right context
- 24. Thank you andfurther reading • Berg A. et al. (2019). PATH2030 – An Evaluation of Finland’s Sustainable Development Policy. Publications of the Government´s analysis, assessment and research activities 23/2019. Prime Minister’s Office, Helsinki. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-287-655-3 • Lyytimäki J. (2019) Thermostat or thermometer? A Finnish perspective on the overloaded role of sustainability indicators in societal transition. Sustainable Development 27(5): 817-825. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.1941 • Lyytimäki J. (2019). Seeking SDG Indicators. Nature Sustainability 2: 646. Doi: 10.1038/s41893-019- 0346-7 https://rdcu.be/bJgyu • Lyytimäki J. Gudmundsson H., Sørensen C. H. (2014). Russian dolls and Chinese whispers: Two perspectives on the unintended effects of sustainability indicator communication. Sustainable Development 22(2): 84-94. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.530 • Rosenström U. (2018). Sustainable development indicators Finland: Going from large descriptive sets to target oriented actively used indicators. In S. Bell, & S. Morse (Eds.), Routledge handbook of sustainability indicators (pp. 231– 238). New York: Routledge. • Finnish Sustainable Development Indicators: https://kestavakehitys.fi/en/monitoring • Finnish Sustainable Development Goals indicators: http://www.stat.fi/tup/kestavan-kehityksen-yk-indikaattorit-agenda2030_en.html https://www.ecowelfare.fi/