Minister of Investment Development and International Cooperation and with the support of UNFPA a workshop about the challenges and perspectives of setting up of the monitoring indicators platform for sustainable development goals (SDGs). The objective of the workshop is to bring together the different governmental and non-governmental actors, as well as the UN system in relation to the SDGs’ indicators in order to present the NIS platform and identify good practices in the collection and the dissemination of SDG indicators.

About 100 participants were present and represented the governmental structures: the Ministry of Investment Development and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Council of Statistics in charge of the institutional coordination of the national statistical system; United Nations agencies; the African Development Bank (ADB), the NIS partner on the SDG monitoring platform project; the SDG steering committee; the experts responsible for supporting the writing of the National Voluntary Report of Tunisia for the year 2019; members of technical committees by SDG, academics; civil society and the media.

The specific objectives were essentially to:

• •Raise awareness about data challenges and indicator disaggregation at the regional level.
• •Present the UN recommendations in terms of SDG monitoring and review platforms.
• •Present the NIS project in terms of the SDG indicator tracking platform and the Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange (SDMX) standard for data exchange initiated in cooperation with ADB.
• •Collecting the opinions of the various stakeholders (ministries, organizations, etc.) on the best coordination mechanisms for collecting SDG indicators from different sources (other than the NIS) and identifying the role of non-governmental actors in monitoring SDGs.

Presentations and discussions were around:

• •Description of the challenges and opportunities in terms of monitoring the SDGs;
• •United Nations recommendations for the development of country SDG monitoring platforms;
• •Benchmarking of existing platforms and presentation of the INS SDG monitoring platform project in partnership with ADB;
• •Role of the academic world in monitoring the SDGs;
• •Role of civil society in promoting and monitoring the SDGs.

The discussions resulted in strategic recommendations, including the development of a national development strategy for 2030; organizational with the strengthening of coordination mechanisms between all stakeholders; the development of the list of priority SDG indicators in relation to the 2030 strategy; the launching of research projects with the academic world to develop methodologies and for the use of new sources of data and involvement of civil society in the work of groups with the creation of an NGO council to promote the SDGs, their monitoring and evaluation.

The NIS, with the support of the UNFPA Tunisia CO, organized on July 11, 2019, a round table on "Indicators of SDGs in connection with the ICPD” as a part of the celebration of WPD, and a follow-up to the recommendations of the NIS research workshop on the SDGs monitoring platform (on June 2019 supported by UNFPA)

The meeting brought together the various stakeholders concerned by the SDGs’ indicators in relation to the ICPD and offered a space for discussion and exchange on the program of action on population and development 25 years later, the Cairo Conference of 1994, the importance of accelerating the promises of the ICPD, and finally the indicators of the SDGs in relation to the ICPD. During this workshop, government, civil society and academic representatives discussed the main indicators of MICS6, particularly those related to SRH, and stressed the importance of strengthening the commitment to redouble their efforts to ensure equitable access for all, especially those most vulnerable to quality SRH rights and services. On the other hand, the meeting made it possible to report on the availability of the 17 priority indicators of the SDGs in relation to the ICPD and to highlight the main recommendations to improve their collection.