How the Pacific is Measuring Up, and whether we could do more

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Henry Cooke in New York reports  that five Pacific states are reporting to the UN on their sustainable development goals (SDG), measured by 17 goals and 230 statistical indicators, this week.

He notes that most Pacific Islands lack the resources to measure the indicators, and that there are far too many indicators. As a result, a Pacific SDG task force has limited the indicators to 132 but even then Niue will report on only 38 indicators, Cook Islands on 45,  Samoa on 60 and Tonga on 61. Included in the others, not reporting this week, is Fiji with the largest number of indicators, but even this relatively developed country has insufficient statistical information  on education and none on safe water supply.