Indicators

Indicators are essential tools that aid in the effective monitoring and evaluation of progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These 17 goals, adopted by the United Nations in 2015, set forth an ambitious blueprint for global development by 2030, focusing on an array of areas such as eradicating poverty, achieving quality education, promoting gender equality, and ensuring environmental sustainability. Indicators play a critical role in translating these abstract aspirations into quantifiable, observable outcomes. Essentially, they function as markers that depict the current status of a specific SDG, allowing stakeholders to evaluate their strategies and actions and adjust as necessary.

For instance, the SDG 1, aiming to end poverty, utilizes indicators such as the proportion of a population living below the international poverty line or the proportion of men, women, and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions. These indicators offer a clear and measurable way to track progress towards the objective. Similarly, the SDG 13, which targets actions to combat climate change and its impacts, employs indicators like the number of countries that have communicated the strengthening of their national adaptation plans or the number of countries that have integrated mitigation measures into their national policies.

Moreover, indicators are critical in fostering accountability and transparency. They provide a means for citizens, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders to hold governments accountable for their commitments towards achieving the SDGs. For example, if an indicator reveals slow or stagnant progress in a particular area, it signals the need for action, enabling the public to push for policy changes or interventions.

Indicators also encourage a data-driven approach to development. They offer objective evidence, thereby helping decision-makers to base their actions on facts rather than assumptions. Consequently, they contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of interventions, promoting the optimal allocation of resources towards areas that require the most attention.

The relationship between indicators and SDGs is thus a dynamic and crucial one. Indicators serve not merely as measurement tools but as powerful agents of change, enabling the translation of the SDGs from broad global objectives into concrete, actionable, and measurable targets that can effectively guide the world towards sustainable development.

Earth Day is celebrated annually on April 22nd every year to demonstrate support for environmental protection. The theme for Earth day 2023 is Invest In Our Planet. Elsevier is proud to highlight these freely accessible book chapters and journal articles in honour of this event.
These dashboards present data from the World Development Indicators (WDI) that help to monitor the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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Mark John Costello, Restoring Biodiversity and Living With Nature (Based Solutions), Editor(s): Dominick A. DellaSala, Michael I. Goldstein, Imperiled: The Encyclopedia of Conservation, Elsevier, 2022, Pages 7-14, ISBN 9780128211397

This chapter advances the UN SDG goals 12, 13 and 17 focussing on the restoration of biodiversity, which has become an international priority. Recognizing that it is difficult to determine when biodiversity has recovered, five indicators of recovery are proposed.
At the beginning of this year, the UK government released a White Paper on Reforms of the 1983 Mental Health Act (MHA) aiming to achieve higher quality, accessible mental health care, as well as empowering people detained under MHA during the process and continuation of detention. In this piece, we focus on the potential impact of the proposal around appropriate care, management and detention of people with Personality Disorder (PD) within the criminal justice system (CJS), psychiatric service provision and community routes.
Since 1999, the Office of the United States Surgeon General has identified suicide prevention as a national public health priority. The National Strategy on Suicide Prevention, coordinated by the public-private Action Alliance, was most recently updated in 2012. In early 2021, the Surgeon General's office released a Call to Action to fully implement the national strategy.
This review summarizes recent research in four environmental areas affecting risk of deaths by suicide. Politically, the weight of the evidence suggests that laws increasing social welfare expenditures and other policies assisting persons with low incomes (e.g., minimum wage) tend to lower suicide rates. Other legal changes such as those restricting firearms and alcohol availability can also prevent suicides. The social institutions of marriage, as well as parenting, continue to serve as protective factors against suicide, although the degree of protection is often gendered.
Cyberbullying is associated with increased risk of suicidal and self-harm behaviors in children and adolescents. However, no review to date has explored factors that exacerbate and mitigate this relationship. This systematic review concerns research on factors that influence the impact of cyberbullying on suicidal and self-harm behaviors. Four bibliographic databases were explored and references in included articles were searched. We identified 727 articles and retained 66 that met inclusion criteria.
The Sustainable Development Goals call for countries to reduce premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through mental health promotion, prevention, and treatment (Target 3.5) and for health services to be made universally available (Target 3.8). This paper is part of a broad, global effort to build the capacity of health systems in high-need settings to expand access to mental health services by integrating those services into primary care. In South Africa, nurses are at the heart of this integration effort, and our goal was to learn how best to support nurses to integrate mental health services into their work.
Heightened emphasis on transparency and accountability through corporate governance and disclosure has renewed the focus on the ‘triple bottom line’—environmental, social and economic impacts. Environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) reporting generally measures the sustainability and ethical performance of a company. There is increasing interest in the ESG performance of companies by various stakeholders. A range of mechanisms exist to shape CSR and foment voluntary reporting by companies on their ESG performance. Adhering to one such framework heightens credibility, and a proactive approach to sustainability presents opportunities while ensuring a company’s preparedness to embrace evolving legal requirements.
Genetic polymorphism of the SLC6A4 gene is associated with several behavioral disorders, including depression. Since studying the total nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs) of the SLC6A4 gene at the population level is a difficult task, we aim to utilize in silico approach to detect the most deleterious nsSNPs of the SLC6A4 gene. In our study, 7 computational tools were used in the initial stage, including SIFT, Polyphen-2, PROVEAN, SNAP2, PhD-SNP, PANTHER, and SNPs&GO to find out the most damaging nsSNPs.

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