Bridging data gaps: How TOSSD informed (and could have informed) Voluntary National Reviews at the 2024 HLPF?

 

Every year in July, the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) gathers the international community to review progress in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. On this occasion, countries are invited to present Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) to share information on progress they are making in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In 2024, thirty-six countries presented their VNRs and the HLPF focused on reviewing the implementation of SDG 1 (No poverty), SDG 2 (zero hunger), SDG 13 (climate action) and SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions). SDG 17 on “Partnerships for the Goals” is reviewed each year.

In 2024, Austria, Brazil, Costa Rica and Spain included references to TOSSD data in their VNRs. Data on Total Official Support for Sustainable Development (TOSSD) can be useful for the VNRs as TOSSD measures the full array of resources to promote sustainable development of developing countries. The TOSSD database currently covers sustainable development support from 2019 to 2022, with more than 1.6 million activities reported by 121 official providers (countries and multilateral organisations) over this period. The data are available free of charge on our data platform, conceived to provide developing countries the complete panorama of the official support they receive. 

This data story looks at how the VNRs presented in 2024 reflected the official development support developing countries had received[1] and how TOSSD could help close data gaps on financing for development for those countries. In brief[2], there were:

• 11 VNRs with data on the volume of official support for sustainable development received: Costa Rica, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Namibia, Palau, Peru, Solomon Islands, Yemen and Zimbabwe.
• 2 VNRs with figures on official support received as a share of GNI: Chad and Nepal.
• 3 VNRs with data on the official support received for select SDGs only: Eritrea, Kenya and Uganda.
• 17 VNRs with no information on official support received: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Congo (Republic of the), Georgia, Libya, Honduras, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Samoa, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic and Vanuatu.

According to TOSSD data, the 33 countries listed above received a total of USD 55.2 billion (gross disbursements) in official support for sustainable development in 2022, while the total for the 22 countries with limited or no data was around USD 40.7 billion. The figure below presents a breakdown of these resources by country and by financial instrument (grants, loans, and others).  

TOSSD can complement information collected at national level on development support.

The figure below presents a comparison between, on the one hand, data collected at the country level by Equatorial Guinea, Palau, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Guinea on the support they received and, on the other hand, data available in TOSSD. For Zimbabwe, Guinea and Namibia, the volume of disbursements reported to TOSSD were respectively 30%, 48% and 79.5% greater than those reported in their VNRs. For Equatorial Guinea and Palau, TOSSD disbursements totalled respectively five and six times those presented in the VNRs.

 

The International Forum on TOSSD (IFT) Secretariat is currently piloting, along with the governments of Cameroon and the Dominican Republic, a data review mechanism for TOSSD recipients. This mechanism responds to long-standing requests by developing countries to review international statistics on development support. TOSSD allows – for the first time – developing countries to have their say on both the measurement methodology and the data on financing for development. 

TOSSD and the SDGs under thematic review for the 2024 HLPF

The figure below presents the shares of TOSSD resources associated with SDGs 1, 2, 13 and 16, with a breakdown between cross-border flows and global/regional expenditures. The graph also shows the amounts disbursed that were associated to each one of those SDGs. TOSSD is a data source for the SDG Global Indicators Framework (as we explained in another data story earlier this year), and could be used for the thematic reviews the HLPF holds annually. On TOSSD.online, users can explore the distribution of TOSSD by SDGs, at both goal and target level. 

Some final remarks:

At the time of writing, 25 TOSSD recipient countries and territories* have already expressed their intention to present a VNR at the 2025 HLPF. These countries can use TOSSD data to inform their VNRs and complement information they already have at the country level on support for sustainable development. TOSSD data are available from 2019 to 2022 and new data on 2023 activities will become available early 2025. Along with other tools (e.g. Integrated National Financing Frameworks and the SDG Trade Monitor), TOSSD can help recipient countries fill their data gaps on financing for development.

The International Forum on TOSSD Secretariat hosted last year a capacity-building seminar to explain how governments and other stakeholders can use TOSSD data in the preparation of VNRs.  We will organise another one later this year – stay tuned!

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Publication date: 17 September 2024

Author: International Forum on TOSSD Secretariat