Paper short abstract:

We propose a new compelling method to monitor progress towards the Leave No One behind Pledge in a more systematic and accessible way. We compute global and national trends in six child-related SDG indicators, showing for the first time disaggregated trends for the global poorest 20%.

Paper long abstract:

Almost three years from the signing of the SDGs, the pledge to Leave No One Behind and to put the furthest behind first have lapsed into rhetoric rather than driven meaningful change. The slow progress that many poor and marginalised groups are making towards SDG targets is still often masked by reporting of national and global averages. To remain true to the spirit of the pledge, the world's poorest and most marginalised groups must lie at the heart of SDG monitoring and accountability, with systematic reporting of disaggregated data at national and global levels, and the deployment of innovative data collection techniques to fill data gaps for those groups that remain uncounted.

We propose a new compelling method to monitor progress towards the Leave No One behind Pledge in a more systematic and accessible way. We estimate progress for poor and marginalised groups for six selected child deprivation indicators (child mortality, stunting, school completion, learning outcomes, child marriage, birth registration), while also showing how far the world has to go to reach the targets by 2030. We compute the trends for the poorest 20% globally in comparison to the global average as well as progress on the country level.

The paper also contributes to the discussion on how to communicate progress on the groups and communities left behind. The data developed in this work will be made available in an interactive data dashboard, providing an opportunity for interested actors to show the progress countries are making towards the SDGs.