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Social clocks as instruments for measuring progress towards sustainable development goals

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Abstract

The objective of this article is the introduction of social time as a new concept for monitoring the progress towards the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs). Social time is generally measured with social clocks. They compare the socio-economic situation of a nation or another social actor with a real or virtual reference group and determine this way the actor’s temporal lead or lag as compared to this group. Due to the multitude of possible comparisons, social time can be multidimensional, discontinuous, and even reversible. After a general discussion of these properties, the concept is applied to the monitoring of the progress towards a predefined policy goal. In this special situation the reference group is represented by an ideal virtual actor, moving from a starting point to the mentioned policy goal. Finally, for illustrative purposes the article explores with the instruments of social clocks the progress of three Latin American countries (Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay) with regard to poverty, sanitation, and food security. It turns out, that all three countries were in 2020 behind the schedule set by SDGs of the United Nations.

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Notes

  1. This article uses the term progress in a purely technical way as a movement towards a goal that has a-priori no positive developmentalist connotation.

  2. OECD (2019) uses for the measurement of progress the z-standardized distance of a country from the target-value of the corresponding policy goal (SDG).

  3. A monotonically increasing (or decreasing) reference line is represented by a function f(X) with a slope df/dX that is for all possible X strictly positive (or negative).

  4. A J-curve is represented by a function f(X) with a slope df/dX that increases with the value of X. Consequently, it looks like a letter J, which has given the curve its name.

  5. For methodological details see Sect. 4.2 and 5.

  6. Data source: World Bank (2023), series SI.POV.NAHC.

  7. Data source: World Bank (2023), series SH.STA.SMSS.ZS.

  8. Data source: World Bank (2023), series SN.ITK.MSFI.ZS.

  9. A delay of 15 to 17 years in 2020 + 10 years between 2020 and 2030 = 25 to 27 years away from the goal.

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  1. Fac. of Economics and Social Sciences, Univ. of Fribourg, Freiburg, Switzerland

    Georg P. Mueller

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  1. Georg P. Mueller
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Correspondence to Georg P. Mueller.

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Glossary

Lagx

Lag of an actor regarding the development variable X and compared to its reference trajectory

Lagt

Temporal lag of an actor, analogous to Lagx

Leadx

Lead of an actor regarding the development variable X and compared to its reference trajectory

Leadt

Temporal lead of an actor, analogous to Leadx

t

Physical time

T

Social time

tend

Temporal end of a process

tstart start

Temporal start of a process

X

Development variable

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Mueller, G.P. Social clocks as instruments for measuring progress towards sustainable development goals. Environ Dev Sustain (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-024-04858-1

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