Monitoring and assessment

At an international level, to identify a shared statistical framework to monitor and assess progress towards the objectives of the 2030 Agenda, the United Nations Statistical Commission established the Inter Agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators – IAEG SDGs that defined a set of approximately 250 indicators.

In Italy, the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), together with the National Statistical System (SISTAN), is called by the United Nations Statistical Commission to play an active role in the production of statistical measures for monitoring progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (ISTAT SDGs). The statistical measures take into account the indicators defined by the Expert Group together with some specific national context data. Periodically, ISTAT presents an update of the statistical measures to monitor the SDGs of the 2030 Agenda, publishing the SDGs Report.

Italy's commitment towards a greater and better integration of the three dimensions of sustainability in the statistical system already emerged in 2013. In this year, ISTAT defined a set of Equitable and Sustainable Well-being indicators (ESW), today 152 indicators divided into 12 fundamental domains, with the aim of evaluating the progress of society not only from an economic (GDP) point of view, but also from a social and environmental point of view. The multi-dimensional approach to measure "equitable and sustainable well-being" contributes to integrate indicators on production and economic activity with measures linked to the dimensions of well-being, inequalities and sustainability.

The detailed analysis of the ESW indicators is published annually, since 2013, in the "ESW Report". In 2016, ESW became part of the economic policy cycle definition, bringing attention to their effect also on some fundamental dimensions for the quality of life.

Since 2018, an Annex to the Economic and Finance Document (EFD) reports on the recent trend of a set of 12 ESW indicators and assess the impact of the proposed policies.

The approval of the National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS), and of the Regional and local Strategies, asked for the definition of an integrated monitoring system.

Indeed, according to the provisions of the art. 34 of Legislative Decree 152/2006 and subsequent amendments, the NSDS constitutes the national reference framework for environmental and territorial planning, programming and evaluation processes. Furthermore, according to the same article, Regions have to assess the contribution of their Strategies to the achievement of the broader national sustainable development goals and to the implementation of NSDS.

Thus, the NSDS monitoring system was developed by identifying a common set of core indicators, deployable at territorial level and in close connection with the ESW indicators and with the ISTAT SDGs indicators. NSDS integrated monitoring system includes not only quantitative data, but it foresees also the identification of performance and process indicators, to describe complex social processes and phenomena that cannot be described solely through quantitative descriptions.

In 2018, the Ministry of the Environment established the "National Working Group for the monitoring of the National Sustainable Development Strategy" with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), Presidency of the Council, ISTAT and the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA). The National Working Group identified in 2019 a first set of 43 indicators, chosen within the broader framework of ISTAT SDGs indicators, in close synergy with the ESW indicator system. In 2022, as part of the NSDS revision process and with the contribution of institutional actors - national and sub-national - and with non-state actors, this first set was updated and rationalized. The indicators were selected taking into account the criteria used in 2015 by the ESW Commission: parsimony, feasibility, timeliness, sensitivity to public policies. The criteria of the "territorial availability" of the indicators was added and taken into consideration, building on the specific provisions of the aforementioned art. 34.

The NSDS integrated monitoring system today presents a common set of context indicators. In detail, 55 core indicators are associated with National Strategic Choices (NSC) and 190 indicators are identified for monitoring the National Strategic Objectives (NSO).

Furthermore, the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE) established institutional collaborations to give evidence to the potential contribution of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) to the achievement of sustainability objectives. Thus, the NSDS also contains the analysis of the links between the national Strategic Choices and each of the NRRP mission, as well as the identification of common NRRP/NSDS indicators identified through the collaboration between MASE and the NRRP Mission Unit of the State General Accounting Department.

With the same perspective, MASE collaborates with the Department for Territorial Cohesion - NUVAP and with the Agency for Territorial Cohesion, to link Cohesion policies and NSDS objectives within a correlation matrix. The matrix has been shared with Regions, Autonomous Provinces and Metropolitan Cities, becoming a reference framework for the definition and evaluation of regional planning documents and current and future metropolitan strategic agendas.

The Universities of Tor Vergata, Sapienza and Roma Tre have set up an interactive consultation tool of the matrix, through the Power BI software, with the aim of allowing a dynamic visualization of the existing links between NSDS, 2030 Agenda, NRRP and Cohesion policies. The purpose is to help in the alignment of the strategic documents and providing a cross cutting reading.