Background

WASD is delighted to have been working very closely with various United Nations Agencies, most specifically with the UN Joint Inspection Unit (JIU). Both JIU and WASD are inspired by the conviction that the UN Agenda 2030 for SD and the 17 SDGs provide the momentum for a renewed UN engagement with the public and private sectors. 

In 2018, WASD collaborated with JIU on the UN project A.435 “Strengthening the Policy Research Uptake in Service of the 2030”, aimed at reviewing the policy research uptake in service of the 2030 Agenda for SD. For the first time in its 52-year history, the UN (aided by WASD) officially consulted academics and researchers from all over the world on the policy research uptake in the UN.

In 2019, WASD also worked very closely with the UN JIU to undertake a UN system-wide review of policies, programmes, and platforms to support learning and enhance the adequacy of training policies in the UN. The report Policies and platforms in support of learning: towards more coherence, coordination, and convergence was launched officially on 28 October 2020 at the opening of WASD’s Online Learning Conference.

These various initiatives and events with the UN JIU have encouraged WASD to launch its Sustainable Development Goals Tracker (SDGT).