NITI Aayog releases NER district SDG index; East Sikkim ranks first

GANGTOK,: A milestone towards localising Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was achieved with the release of the first edition of the North Eastern Region (NER) District SDG Index Report and Dashboard 2021–22 by NITI Aayog and Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region today.
The NER District SDG Index & Dashboard, a collaborative effort by NITI Aayog and Ministry of DoNER, with technical support from UNDP, is the first-of-its-kind in the country as it focuses on the North Eastern Region, which is of critical significance to the country’s development trajectory, a PIB release informs.
The index measures the performance of the districts of the eight States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura on the Sustainable Development Goals 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 levels and 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, and will be a handy tool for policy makers in the eight North Eastern States, Ministry of DoNER and other Union ministries.
NITI Aayog vice chairperson Dr. Rajiv Kumar, DoNER minister G. Kishan Reddy and DoNER MoS B.L. Verma launched the report, titled ‘North Eastern Region District SDG Index & Dashboard: Baseline Report 2021-22’, in the presence of NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, DoNER secretary Dr. Inder Jit Singh, UNDP resident representative (i/c) Nadia Rasheed and NITI Aayog advisor (SDG) Sanyukta Samaddar.
In his remarks, Dr Rajiv Kumar stated: “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 eight North Eastern States, at the forefront of SDG adoption, implementation, and monitoring.”
G. Kishan Reddy, in his address, said: “The North Eastern Region District SDG Index will help in evidence-based planning, resource allocation, both financial as well as others, and effective supervision and monitoring of the developmental efforts for focused and balanced regional development.”
The NER District SDG Index 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, while assisting in designing future courses of action in the region.
Out of the 103 districts considered for ranking, 64 districts belonged to the Front Runner category while 39 districts were in the Performer category in the composite score and ranking of districts. All districts in Sikkim and Tripura fall in the Front Runner category and there are no districts in the Aspirant or Achiever categories.
East Sikkim, with a score of 75.87, ranks first in the region followed by Gomati and North Tripura districts (75.73) in the second position.
The score for the 103 districts ranges from 53.00 in Kiphire (Nagaland) to 75.87 in East Sikkim (Sikkim).
The launch was also attended virtually by chief secretaries, additional chief secretaries, principal secretaries, and other senior State government officials of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. Designed and developed by NITI Aayog in collaboration with Ministry of DoNER with technical inputs from UNDP, the preparation of the index followed extensive consultations with all the eight North Eastern States who are the primary stakeholders of this tool.