IAEG-SDGs

2025 Comprehensive Review Process

In accordance with GA Resolution 71/313, the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) conducted a Comprehensive Review of the global indicator framework throughout 2024 with the aim to submit its proposed refinements, revisions, replacements, additions and deletions to the 56^th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission in March 2025 for its consideration.

This webpage provides information on the 2025 Comprehensive Review process, its timeline, the criteria used for determining what can be included in the Review, as well as information on the open consultation.

Guiding Principles of 2025 Comprehensive Review

The 2025 comprehensive review provides a good opportunity to improve the indicator framework to help the global monitoring of the 2030 agenda and to provide the necessary guidance to countries, many of which are already well advanced in implementing their national framework and reporting platforms. The Expert Group agreed on several guiding principles for the review in order to set the parameters within which the review would take place. The principles include the following:

The review needs to take into account investments already made at the national and international levels and should not undermine ongoing efforts;
The revised framework should not significantly impose an additional burden on national statistical work;
There should be space for improvements, while at the same time ensuring that the changes are limited in scope and the size of the framework remains the same;
The focus of the Group's common work should remain on the implementation of the framework in countries for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Specific Criteria for Implementation of 2025 Comprehensive Review (subject to modification)

An additional indicator may be considered only in exceptional cases when a crucial aspect of a target is not being monitored by the current indicator(s) or to address a critical or emerging new issue that is not monitored by the existing indicators, or when a whole Goal has very few tier I or tier II indicators for the follow up;
A deletion will be considered when a tier II indicator has not been able to submit data to the global SDG monitoring or is proven to be challenging for countries to implement, and a replacement will be proposed if the deleted indicator is the only indicator monitoring the corresponding target;
Adjustments or replacements will be considered when the indicator does not map well to the target or does not track the target well;
The proposed indicator must have an agreed methodology and available data (tier III indicator proposals will not be considered) and be suitable for global monitoring;
The aim of the review will be to maintain the same number of indicators currently in the framework in order not to alter significantly the original framework, which is already being implemented in most countries and not to increase the reporting burden on national statistical systems.

Other considerations (including proxy indicator)

Proxy Indicator can be considered:

If the current indicator is proven to be very challenging for countries to implement, and
the proposed proxy indicator has a sound methodology and good data coverage.

Timeline for 2025 Comprehensive Review

The timeline for the 2025 Comprehensive Review is as follows:

Nov 2022 : the IAEG-SDGs will share the recommended timeline and the guiding principles for 2025 Comprehensive;

Nov 2023 : the Group will share the specific criteria for the 2025 Comprehensive Review;

January- June 2024 : the Group will prepare a review framework containing possible deletions, replacements, adjustments and additions, based on previous analysis and assessments, with assistance from the Secretariat;

May 2024 : all proposals for indicator changes for the 2025 Review (replacements, deletions, refinements, adjustments and additional indicators) must be submitted to the Secretariat;

July-August 2024 : open consultation will be held on a preliminary list of a proposal of indicator changes;

September 2024 : the Group will review the results of the consultations;

October/November 2024 : during 15th IAEG-SDG meeting, the Group will review the draft proposal of indicator changes to be included in the 2025 Comprehensive Review;

December 2024 : the Group will prepare the final proposal for the 2025 review and submit it to the Commission for its consideration at the fifty-sixth session in March 2025.

Throughout this entire process, the IAEG-SDGs will continue to operate in an open and transparent manner and will consult with custodian agencies, member States, stakeholders and other experts as needed to clarify indicator proposals and respond to any questions the group has.