Generating views from Elsewhere: UIS and the global project of SDG4 indicators

Abstract

ABSTRACT The declaration of the UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 brought together 193 nations to commit to a common set of 17 critical, highly ambitious global goals. This paper analyses how the Technical Cooperation Group of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) develops consensus on measuring and monitoring SDG4. We empirically examine the processes of collecting, connecting and compounding various views through its meetings, consultations and roundtables. We call this resulting cosmopolitan view a view from elsewhere – noting that despite the desire to be inclusive, the views elicited through the compounding of political, technical and sociomoral representations are always framed by and enacted through processes that are determined by a small set of global elites. In making this argument through an empirical demonstration, we disrupt the depoliticised narrative of global consensus and call attention to the epistemic processes involved in the forging of global indicators and reform agendas.