The Definitions & Terminologies for SDG Indicator 2.4.1.: “Percentage of agricultural area under productive and sustainable agriculture".

On 25 September 2015, the 193 Member States of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – including 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets – committing the international community to end poverty and hunger and achieve sustainable development between 2016 and 2030. Six months later, a global indicator framework for the SDGs – comprising 230 indicators - was identified to monitor the 169 targets and track progress, becoming the foundation of the SDGs’ accountability structure.

This document presents a proposal of indicators that could be considered for FAO to monitor progress towards a subset of Goals for which the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) define targets aimed towards various outcomes, as well as additional targets addressing related Means of Implementation. The proposals comprise both established and potential indicators in areas where FAO has unique expertise and abundant experience as the leading UN specialized body committed to food security and sustainable development.

Dr Tom Brooks, Head, Science and Knowledge International Union for Conservation of Nature UNECE, Committee on Environmental Policy, presentation on Biodiversity Indicators: UNECE and the SDGS at the 12th Session of the Joint Task Force on Environmental Statistics and Indicators, 17 November 2016.

FAO presentation on Forest-related indicators, monitoring and reporting related to the SDGs.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out the international community’s commitment to rid the world of poverty and hunger and achieve sustainable development in its three dimensions – economic, social and environmental.

As we turn the page on MDGs to SDGs, the unprecedented proliferation of slums and informal settlements, and a chronic lack of adequate housing, continues to be amongst the major challenges of urbanization. Slums, informal settlements and inadequate housing remain the visible manifestations of poverty and inequality in cities. Inadequate housing complements the measurement of slums, particularly in the developed world, in order not to leave anyone behind.

Cities function in an efficient, equitable and sustainable manner only when private and public spaces work in a symbiotic relation to enhance each other. Public space generates equality, however in the past decades it has been drastically been reduced. Inadequate, poorly designed, or privatized public spaces generate exclusion and marginalization.

A defining feature of many of the world’s cities is an outward expansion far beyond formal administrative boundaries, largely propelled by the use of the automobile, poor urban and regional planning and land speculation. A large proportion of cities both from developed and developing countries have high consuming suburban expansion patterns which often extend to even further peripheries. Cities need to accommodate new and thriving urban functions such as transportation routes, etc. as they expand.

Geoffrey Payne outlines five fundamental propositions that are key to his understanding of tenure issues and policy options.

These are:

1) That access to affordable land with adequate security of tenure and associated rights is a pre-condition for realising the goal of adequate housing and poverty reduction;

This report is based on research carried out in five Asia Pacific countries – China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. This document should serve as an instrument to help in Transparency International’s constructive but critical dialogue needed to fight corruption and build integrity in the forestry sector. As such it is aimed at civil society, the private sector, and government agencies, and all those who stand to benefit from improved forest governance.

Unprecedented pressures on land and its governance have been created. As evident around the globe, where land governance is deficient, high levels of corruption often flourish. Under such a system, land distribution is unequal, tenure is insecure, and natural resources are poorly managed.