UNITED NATIONS — Sub-Saharan Africa is urbanizing at the fastest rate in the world — too fast, in fact, to be accurately captured in the latest official update on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
“It is a really specific thing, but is affecting the way people live, the economic opportunities they have and the demands on governments to provide infrastructure,” said Claire Melamed, executive director at the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data. “For about two-thirds of the population of Africa, we are relying on data which is four, five, six years out of date and that is really not acceptable and not necessary anymore.”
Partial and outdated available government data has long been a concern surrounding the implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Governments first adopted the goals in 2015, pledging to work toward eliminating hunger, poverty, and other far-reaching targets by 2030.