- NET Web Desk
On Thursday, August 26, NITI Aayog and Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) released the first edition of the North Eastern Region (NER) District Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Index Report and Dashboard 2021-22.
A collaborative effort by NITI Aayog and Ministry of DoNER, with technical support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the NER District SDG Index& Dashboard is the first-of-its-kind in the country that focuses on the North Eastern Region, area critically significant to the country’s development trajectory.
The Index measures the performance of districts from all the eight States of NER – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura
It discusses about the SDGs and their corresponding targets and ranks the districts based on the same.
The index is based on NITI Aayog’s SDG India Index- the principal and official tool for monitoring progress on the SDGs at the national and State/Union Territory (UT) levels.
This documentation shares the common ethos of benchmarking performance and ranking on the SDGs to foster competition among the districts.
The index offers insights into the social, economic, and environmental status of the region and its districts in their march towards achieving the SDGs.
It is a unique policy tool which has immense potential to measure district level progress, highlight critical gaps, facilitate resource allocation.
Besides, it will act as a handy tool for policy makers in the eight North Eastern States, Ministry of DoNER and other Union Ministries.
“The North Eastern Region District SDG Index is an important milestone in our SDG journey aimed at leaving no one behind and will strengthen SDG localization, by putting the districts, especially in our 8 Northeastern States, at the forefront of SDG adoption, implementation, and monitoring.” – asserted by Dr Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog.
Furthermore, it aims at delineating progress at the district level on a basket of indicators and enhancing analytical understanding of sectoral issues as well as data gaps, thereby assisting in designing future courses of action in the region.
The modular nature of the index makes it a policy tool and a ready reckoner for gauging progress of districts.
It incorporates the expansive set of Global Goals, including health, education, gender, economic growth, institutions, climate change and environment, among others.
Out of the 103 districts considered for ranking, 64 districts belonged to the Front Runner category while 39 districts were in the Performer category.
All districts in Sikkim and Tripura fall in the Front Runner category and there are no districts in the Aspirant or Achiever categories.
The top 10 districts mentioned by the index are :
East Sikkim district, Sikkim with a Score 75.87 ranks first in the region followed by districts Gomati district, North Tripura with scores 75.73 in the second position.
West Tripura stands to third position, scoring 75.67. Serchhip district, Mizoram stands to fourth position, scoring 74.87.
South Sikkim stands fifth with score 74.80. Unakoti, Tripura stands sixth scoring 73.47.
Lunglei, Mizoram stands stands seventh scoring 72.87. Dhalia and Sepahijala, Tripura stands 8th with score 72.60.
South Tripura stands to 9th with 72.40, and Kolasib, Mizoram comes 10th with 72.27.
Meanwhile, the bottom 10 districts mentioned in the documentation includes –
Longleng, Nagaland with 59.07. Shi Yomi, Arunachal Pardesh scores 58.60. East Kameng district, Arunachal Pradesh and Phek district, Nagaland scores 58.27.
57.40
Kamle district, Arunachal Pradesh scores 57.40 under the category of bottom 10 districts. While North Garo Hills district, Meghalaya scores 56.87.
Mon district, Nagaland scores 55.93 and Tuensang district, Nagaland scores 55.87.
Kra Daadi district, Arunachal Pradesh scores 55.60.
Zunheboto district and Kiphire district, Nagaland scores 54.53 and 53.00 respectively.
