Dang, Hai-AnhCarletto, CalogeroJolliffe, Dean2025-09-232025-09-232025-09Hai-Anh Dang, Calogero Carletto, Dean Jolliffe. Better tracking SDG progress with fewer resources? A call for more innovative data uses. World Development Perspectives, Volume 39, 2025, 100721. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wdp.2025.1007212452-2929https://hdl.handle.net/10986/43757Tracking progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is hampered by significant data and measurement challenges worldwide. Countries face issues of both insufficient data—such as missing or rarely updated statistics—and poor-quality data, which may be unusable or inconsistent across regions and over time. Current approaches are unlikely to fully populate the SDG data framework, prompting calls for innovative solutions like citizen science and artificial intelligence to address these gaps. Recent reviews reveal that less than 10% of the necessary data is available for monitoring poverty (SDG 1), and overall SDG data coverage is generally below 20%. Data gaps are even more pronounced for goals related to environmental quality. These problems are most acute in poorer countries, where the need for reliable data is greatest to inform welfare improvements. For example, over half of children under five in Sub-Saharan Africa are not registered at birth, and many of the poorest countries lack basic health indicator data. Vulnerable groups—including women, girls, people with disabilities, migrant workers, and refugees—are often missing from SDG progress reports. Collecting more and better-quality data is essential for effective policy interventions. SDG 1 specifically requires annual reporting on global poverty, a need underscored by the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on poverty reduction efforts. However, the traditional solution of simply gathering more data is often impractical for low- and middle-income countries, which typically conduct household surveys only every few years due to limited resources and capacity. This restricts their ability to produce timely poverty estimates, especially during crises, and highlights the urgent need for new approaches to SDG data collection and monitoring.en-USJournal ArticleWorld Bank