Monitoring sustainable development in Brazil through a composite index

Abstract

Sustainable development indicators gained visibility with the United Nations 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. At the same time, two basic problems became relevant: data availability and results communication. The present study aims to deal with both of them by proposing a Sustainable Development (SD) Index for Brazil. Collecting data for such composite index gave the opportunity for facing the data problems: availability and frequency mainly. On the other side, by comparing the Brazilian SD Index in 2001 and 2015, it is possible to show its efficacy in monitoring and easiness in communicating the progress, as well as problems, a country faces in meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals.