Welcome

Before we get to coding in R, let’s chat about the data we will be using for the course!

What are the Sustainable Development Goals?

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.

Layers of the SDG’s

  • Goal
    • Target
      • Indicator

Data for the Course

Every module in this course uses data from the 2023 Sustainable Development Report generated by the SDG Transformation Center

  • For the purpose of this course, we downloaded this data and placed it into the data folder in the R project you will clone with Github (further explained in the how to accept and submit assignments tab of the installation guide)

Data Methodology

Generating a dataset is a complex process that requires comprehensive documentation regarding the specifics of the data and any decision making in the collection/sharing process

The documentation for this dataset can be downloaded here by clicking on Methodology

  • Unfortunately, the methodology has not been updated since 2018, but this is the best option we have available to us

Exploring SDG Data

Some amazing tools have been created for us to explore the data from the 2023 Sustainable Development Report

There are also dashboards that allow us to visualize SDG data for more specific places

This may cause you to wonder: why learn to code when all of these tools are already available to us?

  • The simple answer is that we will always hit limits and barriers regarding the questions we want to answer if we are relying on data exploration tools that are created for us. The ability to code allows us to to customize analysis and research without limitations

Challenge

Use the data visualization tools on one of these platforms(Small Island Developing States Data Platform, United States Sustainable Development Report, 2023 Sustainable Development Report) to create 2 data visualizations. For each visualization, write 4 sentences describing what you see.

Download the visualization and descriptions into a pdf and email to and

  • This is the only challenge that will be submitted via email, the rest will be through github classroom