Abstract

Large indicator sets such as the set used to monitor progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals with its 231 indicators have specific communication challenges such as crystallising key messages for politicians and other non-specialist users. A clear communication strategy to present the often complex and diverse results of any monitoring involving large indicator sets is therefore essential. While for evidence based policymaking, a comprehensive analysis of a topic including all indicators is mandatory, other types of uses and users may require aggregated and sharpened messages. Dashboards grouping a sub-set of indicators on a specific topic represent another, increasingly popular method to guide the users’ attention and present a clearer picture. However, the choice of indicators and their assessment methodology may strongly influence the results of such alternative approaches. To ensure coherent messages, good coordination with parallel monitoring exercises drawing on the same or similar indicators is therefore vital.
The session will present good practices on how to interact with a broad range of users, such as policy makers, researchers, educators and entrepreneurs depending on the context and use case. Moreover, it will highlight the communication challenges in case of dashboards covering closely linked topics (e.g. SDGs and wellbeing).
Finally, the session will debate the need for further development in the light of new data sources and complexity of the questions asked.