IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v27y2025i6d10.1007_s10668-024-04492-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing regional progress toward the sustainable development goals (SDGs): Whither the Caribbean?

Author

Listed:
  • Suzana N. Russell

    (University of the West Indies)

  • Lila Rao-Graham

    (University of the West Indies)

  • Maurice McNaughton

    (University of the West Indies)

Abstract

This paper assesses the state of monitoring and reporting on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Caribbean. This assessment evaluates regional progress by analyzing the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) of the seven Caribbean countries that have presented baseline reports between 2017 and 2020. Using this data, we present an analytical tool in the form of a dashboard on a web platform to provide a visual narrative of the current state of SDG monitoring in the region. The results show uneven coverage of the 17 goals, with only 1 goal being measured and reported on by all countries. Further, the results show that the region has largely focused on the goals related to ‘people’ or the society, with little emphasis on goals related to the environment, despite the geographic location which makes these countries susceptible to man-made and natural disasters. Our analysis reveals the significant data gaps that exist; 35% of all SDG indicators are not currently measured by any country in the region. This novel regional assessment for the Caribbean fills an existing gap in evidence-based assessments as there is no aggregation of SDG data for the region in existing dashboards and indexes, which makes it difficult to see at a glance how the region is progressing. We believe regional reporting on the progress of the SDGs provides significant opportunities for knowledge sharing and peer-learning that can facilitate a collaborative effort for these small island developing countries that are constrained by small size, limited resources and statistical data capacity.

Suggested Citation

  • Suzana N. Russell & Lila Rao-Graham & Maurice McNaughton, 2025. "Assessing regional progress toward the sustainable development goals (SDGs): Whither the Caribbean?," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(6), pages 13777-13791, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:27:y:2025:i:6:d:10.1007_s10668-024-04492-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-024-04492-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-024-04492-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10668-024-04492-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Miola, Apollonia & Schiltz, Fritz, 2019. "Measuring sustainable development goals performance: How to monitor policy action in the 2030 Agenda implementation?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Javier García López & Raffaele Sisto & Javier Benayas & Álvaro de Juanes & Julio Lumbreras & Carlos Mataix, 2021. "Assessment of the Results and Methodology of the Sustainable Development Index for Spanish Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-29, June.
    2. Hametner, Markus, 2022. "Economics without ecology: How the SDGs fail to align socioeconomic development with environmental sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    3. Joanna Kudełko, 2025. "Development sustainability levels in EU countries," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(2), pages 2797-2811, April.
    4. Syed Mithun Ali & Andrea Appolloni & Fausto Cavallaro & Idiano D’Adamo & Assunta Di Vaio & Francesco Ferella & Massimo Gastaldi & Muhammad Ikram & Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar & Michael Alan Martin & Abdul, 2023. "Development Goals towards Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-11, June.
    5. Giuliano Resce & Fritz Schiltz, 2021. "Sustainable Development in Europe: A Multicriteria Decision Analysis," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(2), pages 509-529, June.
    6. Marianela Carrillo, 2022. "Measuring Progress towards Sustainability in the European Union within the 2030 Agenda Framework," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-23, June.
    7. Jerónimo Puertas & María Bermúdez, 2020. "Development of a Global SDG Progress Index Aimed at “Leaving No One Behind”," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-13, May.
    8. Emilia Miszewska & Maciej Niedostatkiewicz & Radosław Wiśniewski, 2023. "Sustainable Development of Water Housing Using the Example of Poland: An Analysis of Scenarios," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-16, July.
    9. Anastasia Mortimer & Iftekhar Ahmed & Thomas Johnson & Liyaning Tang & Margaret Alston, 2023. "Localizing Sustainable Development Goal 13 on Climate Action to Build Local Resilience to Floods in the Hunter Valley: A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-17, March.
    10. Hametner, Markus & Kostetckaia, Mariia, 2020. "Frontrunners and laggards: How fast are the EU member states progressing towards the sustainable development goals?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    11. Jason Phillips, 2021. "The application of the Geocybernetic Assessment Matrix to the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 7550-7572, May.
    12. Joanna Wyrwa & Anetta Barska & Janina Jedrzejczak-Gas, 2021. "An Indicator Analysis for the Development of EU Countries in Relation to Sustainable Development," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3 - Part ), pages 918-933.
    13. Sooksan Kantabutra & Nuttasorn Ketprapakorn, 2021. "Toward an Organizational Theory of Resilience: An Interim Struggle," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-28, November.
    14. de Villiers, Charl & Kuruppu, Sanjaya & Dissanayake, Dinithi, 2021. "A (new) role for business – Promoting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals through the internet-of-things and blockchain technology," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 598-609.
    15. Bogdan Ștefanachi & Silviu-Petru Grecu & Horia Costin Chiriac, 2022. "Mapping Sustainability across the World: Signs, Challenges and Opportunities for Democratic Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-28, May.
    16. Jean Bonnet & Eva Coll-Martínez & Patricia Renou-Maissant, 2021. "Evaluating Sustainable Development by Composite Index: Evidence from French Departments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-23, January.
    17. Venkatesh Baskaran & Velkennedy R, 2022. "A systematic review on the role of geographical information systems in monitoring and achieving sustainable development goal 6: Clean water and sanitation," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(5), pages 1417-1425, October.
    18. Alejandro Valencia-Arias & María Lucelly Urrego-Marín & Lemy Bran-Piedrahita, 2021. "A Methodological Model to Evaluate Smart City Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-17, October.
    19. D’Adamo, Idiano & Gastaldi, Massimo & Ioppolo, Giuseppe & Morone, Piergiuseppe, 2022. "An analysis of Sustainable Development Goals in Italian cities: Performance measurements and policy implications," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    20. Graham Long & Jecel Censoro & Katharina Rietig, 2023. "The sustainable development goals: governing by goals, targets and indicators," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 149-156, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:27:y:2025:i:6:d:10.1007_s10668-024-04492-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.