The new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including goal 16 containing the target on providing legal identity for all, including birth registration (target 16.9) were endorsed at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015.
The process on agreeing on the indicators to measure the 17 SDGs has been long underway, with the most recent development being the second meeting of the Inter-agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs). The group is tasked with fully developing a proposal for the indicator framework for the monitoring of the goals and targets of the post-2015 development agenda at the global level, under the leadership of the national statistical offices. The meeting of 26-28 October aimed to reach consensus and identify unresolved issues in respect to the list of indicators and the indicator framework. For more information on this process, please visit the UN Statistics Division IAEG-SDGs webpage.
The inclusion of target 16.9 means that the provision of legal documentation is being recognized and addressed as a global development issue. The current suggestion for an indicator on legal identity is the percentage of children under 5 whose births have been registered with civil authority, disaggregated by age. Initially the indicator was not suggested disaggregated by age, but various stakeholders suggested additional or alternative indicators such as whether it would be more relevant to monitor registration of children under 1, as this would highlight the need for timely registration. Following consultation in November and December 2015, age disaggregation was included.
As agreed at the 2nd IAEG-SDGs meeting in Bangkok, additional comments on the indicators coded as "green" could be submitted through the electronic form. From Wednesday, 4 November 9 am EST until Saturday, 9 am 7 November EST. IAEG-SDG members continued deliberations on this green list until November 20, after which it was to be submitted to the United Nations Statistics Commission for endorsement in March 2016.
