While the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be inked by the United Nations General Assembly in just a few months, a key component of those goals won’t be agreed upon until early next year. That’s when the U. N. Statistical Commission will finalize the indicators that will measure the ultimate success or failure of the SDGs — measuring progress by national governments on specific metrics beneath each goal.

To that end, the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) met in early June. As Citiscope has reported, that first meeting was more political than expected given the technical nature of the task at hand. (Videos of event are available here.)

The United Nations has now released the official report of that first meeting. Usefully, this document filters out much of the political negotiation and focuses on the concrete conclusions that came out of the IAEG’s initial effort to bring together global statisticians and data experts for the purpose of benchmarking the 17 SDGs and their 169 targets.

For urban watchers, Goal 11, the urban SDG, came up in a few places. Overall, the Goal 11 proposed indicators were deemed “feasible and relevant”. However, a few were also singled out for particular attention.

The report asserts that the group must agree on the definition of “slums” for the indicator for Target 11.1. Currently that target reads: “By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums.”

The indicator for Target 11.5 was flagged for eventual review as well. Currently that target reads: “By 2030, significantly reduce the number of deaths and the number of people affected and decrease by [x] per cent the economic losses relative to gross domestic product caused by disasters, including water-related disasters, with a focus on protecting the poor and people in vulnerable situations.”

The undefined variable [x] in that target is the result of an ongoing political impasse in the intergovernmental negotiations over the SDGs. A bloc of countries led by the European Union wants to fill in that variable with language consistent with other international agreements. However, another bloc of countries, this time led by the Group of 77 developing countries (G77), believes any changes at this point would disrupt the consensus that has been carefully crafted around the goals and targets in their entirety.

Finally, the report gives special attention to the indicators for water stress, which comes up in Goal 6, the water SDG, and air quality, which is mentioned in Target 11.6. This latter reads, “By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management.”

More broadly, the report condenses an ongoing debate about whether or not there should be only one indicator per SDG target. On the one hand, such an approach would help limit the size of an already somewhat unwieldy document — although the proposed SDGs are likely to remain as is, over the past year several countries have proposed slashing the number of goals and targets.

On the other hand, following a “one indicator per target” rule would also limit the ability of experts to measure targets by multiple means. Critics of this proposal point out that many targets are multidimensional — for instance, Target 11.7.

Currently, Target 11.7 reads: “By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities.”

For this target, separate indicators be necessary to measure the safety, inclusivity, accessibility and greenness of a public space. In addition, separate indicators may also be needed to discern how those terms apply differently to, for instance, women, children, older persons and those with disabilities.

For now, this particular debate is yet to be resolved. For the next several months the IAEG-SDGs will continue its work digitally, with its second in-person meeting tentatively scheduled for 26-28 October.

Click here for a roundup of Citiscope’s Coverage of Global Debate Leading to the UN’s Habitat III Cities Conference, October 2016