Reyers, BStafford-Smith, MErb, K-HScholes, RJSelomane, Odirilwe2018-02-212018-02-212017-06Reyers, B. et al. 2017. Essential variables help to focus sustainable development goals monitoring. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, vol. 26/27: 97-1051877-3435http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877343517300945https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2017.05.003http://hdl.handle.net/10204/10044Article is published under a Creative Commons LicenseThe imperative to measure progress towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has resulted in a proliferation of targets and indicators fed by an ever-expanding set of observations. This proliferation undermines one principal purpose of the SDGs: to provide a framework for coordinated action across policy domains. Systems approaches to defining Essential Variables have focused monitoring of climate, biodiversity and oceans and offer opportunities to coordinate SDG monitoring. We propose four criteria and a process to identify Essential SDG Variables (ESDGVs), which will highlight interactions and gaps in current monitoring. The ESDGV criteria suggest a research agenda to: develop and test interdisciplinary system models; test transformations theory for sustainable development; analyse policy interactions; and formulate models to support further refinements of ESDGVs and SDG monitoring.enSustainable development monitoringSustainable Development GoalsSDGsEssential SDG VariablesESDGVsArticleReyers, B., Stafford-Smith, M., Erb, K., Scholes, R., & Selomane, O. (2017). Essential variables help to focus sustainable development goals monitoring. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/10044Reyers, B, M Stafford-Smith, K-H Erb, RJ Scholes, and Odirilwe Selomane "Essential variables help to focus sustainable development goals monitoring." (2017) http://hdl.handle.net/10204/10044Reyers B, Stafford-Smith M, Erb K, Scholes R, Selomane O. Essential variables help to focus sustainable development goals monitoring. 2017; http://hdl.handle.net/10204/10044.TY - Article AU - Reyers, B AU - Stafford-Smith, M AU - Erb, K-H AU - Scholes, RJ AU - Selomane, Odirilwe AB - The imperative to measure progress towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has resulted in a proliferation of targets and indicators fed by an ever-expanding set of observations. This proliferation undermines one principal purpose of the SDGs: to provide a framework for coordinated action across policy domains. Systems approaches to defining Essential Variables have focused monitoring of climate, biodiversity and oceans and offer opportunities to coordinate SDG monitoring. We propose four criteria and a process to identify Essential SDG Variables (ESDGVs), which will highlight interactions and gaps in current monitoring. The ESDGV criteria suggest a research agenda to: develop and test interdisciplinary system models; test transformations theory for sustainable development; analyse policy interactions; and formulate models to support further refinements of ESDGVs and SDG monitoring. DA - 2017-06 DB - ResearchSpace DP - CSIR KW - Sustainable development monitoring KW - Sustainable Development Goals KW - SDGs KW - Essential SDG Variables KW - ESDGVs LK - https://researchspace.csir.co.za PY - 2017 SM - 1877-3435 T1 - Essential variables help to focus sustainable development goals monitoring TI - Essential variables help to focus sustainable development goals monitoring UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10204/10044 ER -