On May 16-19, PMA2020 joined global health leaders, advocates, researchers, policy makers, and others at the fourth Women Deliver conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. This conference was one of the first global convenings since the launch of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), or Global Goals, last September. The theme was the SDGs and specifically, the implementation of these Global Goals, with a focus on health – in particular maternal, sexual, and reproductive health and rights.
The 17 SDGs are centered on ending poverty, improving health, reducing inequality and addressing climate change by 2030. Each of the 17 goals has specific targets to be achieved over the next 15 years – which raises the inevitable questions: How will progress be tracked and measured? How will global health leaders and communities know whether we are on track to achieve these goals formalized in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development?
Monitoring progress will require innovative and collaborative solutions.
Part of this solution is PMA2020.
PMA2020, currently implemented in 10 countries in Africa and Asia, produces nationally representative data relevant to indicators for several SDGs like wealth and equity, family planning, school attendance, early marriage, early childbearing, water and sanitation. These support monitoring indicators for SDGs 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 (end poverty; well-being; quality education; gender equality; and clean water and sanitation).
Using the PMA2020 data system enables world leaders to measure progress toward several of the Global Goals in real time, allowing for timely course corrections as well as accountability to global and local commitments.
PMA2020 collects national and subnational data in a timely and regular manner; data are collected with a smartphone platform within six weeks, then checked and analyzed within another six weeks. The mobile data network enables automatic data uploading, which reduces errors and speeds up time that would otherwise be spent on manual data entry. This rapid-turnaround data-generating cycle is possible due to an incredible network of local female data collectors (“Resident Enumerators”) who are trained to conduct smartphone-based surveys, then deployed within the sample clusters.
As part of PMA2020’s participation in the global effort to support the achievement of the SDGs, we are pleased to announce the release of a new SDG Indicator Brief, which presents up-to-date data from the 2015 PMA2020 survey in Uganda on Uganda’s progress toward various SDG targets.
PMA2020 data illuminate the current status of SDG indicators for Uganda, and subsequent briefs will track measurable improvements. This can inform where development work remains and where efforts should be targeted, guiding policy makers and country leaders toward significant improvements in poverty reduction, health care access for all – especially for girls and women – and improved access to water and sanitation sources.
People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnership are the five P’s that encompass the critical areas of importance for the Sustainable Development Goals. Another P to consider, which is integral to these five, is progress, and in particular, the need to measure progress. PMA2020 can help fill this need.