What is the Coherence Index (Indico)?
How does Indico evaluate countries?
What indicators are used in the Coherence Index?
Which countries does it evaluate?
What is the difference between the way Indico and other methodologies assess development?
How does Indico relate to the 2030 Agenda?
What is the Coherence Index (Indico)?
The Coherence Index (Indico) measures, evaluates, and compares countries’ commitment to sustainable, fair and equitable human development. It was conceived as an alternative to the hegemonic and limited view of the indicators typically used to measure progress such as gross domestic product (GDP) and the human development index. This way of understanding and measuring development used in recent decades has proved flawen insofar as it is unable to offer viable alternatives to an unsustainable self-destructive model.
New tools are needed to transform the way we see and understand the world; tools that unveil the consequences and impact that human actions and policies have on people’s lives locally and in different parts of the world. Proposals designed to guide policies that are coherent with human rights and the sustainability of life. In a nutshell, this is what the Coherency Index does.
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How does Indico evaluate countries?
Indico evaluates countries based on two fundamental pillars: transitions and planetary pressure.
Transitions refers to the major changes that public policies coherent with sustainable development need to promote to evolve towards different fair and sustainable lifestyles, and different social organization and forms of production. These changes are bundled into four interrelated transitions: democratic, socio-economic, feminist, and ecological.
Each transition, in turn, is broken down into several dimensions that reflect the main priority areas in which progress needs to be made towards public policies coherent with sustainable development, evaluated by a set of 50 indicators.
Planetary pressure measures the ecological impact and pressure that countries exert on the planet. It is built on two indicators: per capita material footprint and per capita CO2 emissions, both in terms of consumption, with a view to incorporating the ecological effects that countries’ lifestyles have on other territories via the globalization of production and international trade.
What indicators are used in the Coherence Index?
The 2023 Coherence Index is built on 52 indicators: 50 evaluate the 13 dimensions of the four transitions, and the remaining 2 are designed for the planetary pressure index. Click here to find out.
Half of these 52 indicators assess elements related to the design and direct results of certain public policy measures, while the other half measure final results arising from the interaction of different public policies, also potentially influenced by contextual factors or those not exclusively controlled by governments. Moreover, 31 of these 52 indicators (60%) are designed to assess the extent to which public policies incorporate a feminist perspective, a major upgrade compared to previous editions. Of these 31 indicators, 21 measure aspects related to the status of women and gender gaps and 10 evaluate more general aspects including access to water and electricity that significantly affect their quality of life such as.
Which countries does it evaluate?
The Index evaluates 153 countries, i.e. all countries for which sufficient data are available for the variables comprising the Index. In the Indico development process, some countries had to be dispensed with because reliable data on a number of important variables was unavailable.
What is the difference between the way Indico and other methods assess development?
Today we are facing global challenges such as climate change, growing inequality, and the emergence of policy proposals that call into question the human-rights-for-all framework.
For decades, the different stakeholders engaged in development policy have designed their actions based on economic growth (GDP) and Human Development Index (HDI) rankings. This way of approaching and measuring development used in recent decades has proven flawed insofar as it is unable to offer viable alternatives to an unsustainable self-destructive model. New tools are needed to transform the way we see and understand the world; tools that unveil the consequences and impact that human actions and policies have on people’s lives locally and in different parts of the world. These proposals are designed to guide policies coherent with human rights and the sustainability of life.
Fortunately, thanks to the global scientific community, we already have sufficient knowledge about the effects these impacts have on the planet and on people’s living conditions. Indico is based on these data and has become a novel tool, essential in recognizing coherency flaws in sustainable development policy and offering analysis and ideas for developing policies that respect human rights and the planet.
How does Indico relate to the 2030 Agenda?
In September 2015, the UN General Assembly approved the 2030 Agenda which sets out 17 goals with 169 integrated and indivisible targets covering the economic, social, and environmental spheres.
The 2030 Agenda requires a conceptual and instrumental system consolidating a new narrative of the challenges posed by development; a holistic proposal based on universality and multidimensionality incorporating the interdependencies and global interconnections that characterize today’s world. This approach also provides for the rigorous measurement of progress and setbacks in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and internationally agreed targets.
The policy coherence approach to development and the measurement proposal suggested by the Coherence Index constitute an additional framework through which to understand and interpret the challenges that the 2030 Agenda and public policy must meet. It also stands as an ambitious monitoring system that assesses the degree to which countries are complying with commitments made in the area of policy coherence for sustainable development.
In short, it is a tool that sheds light on the interactions between policies, countries, and the dimensions of sustainable development. Indico can help to interpret and resolve some of the most important contradictions arising from the 2030 Agenda.
