SESRIC participated in and delivered a presentation at the 9th Expert Meeting on Statistics for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), organised by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) on 9–10 April 2026 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The meeting brought together experts from national statistical offices, international organisations, and other stakeholders engaged in the production, communication and coordination of SDG statistics. It provided a platform for sharing experiences, good practices, and lessons learned, as well as for discussing innovative solutions to existing challenges and identifying priorities for future methodological and capacity-development work in this field.

During the meeting, Dr. Ahmet ÖZTÜRK, Coordinator of the Data and Information Section at SESRIC, presented the findings of SESRIC’s study titled “Measuring Progress on SDG Indicators without Targets: Methodological Choices and Implications.” The study provided a comparative assessment of methodologies adopted by international institutions, highlighting key differences in the evaluation of SDG progress, particularly for targets that lack explicit quantitative benchmarks.

Building on this analysis, the study introduced a novel perspective by linking the linguistic intensity of SDG targets to observed rates of progress. The findings demonstrated that targets formulated with higher intensity—such as “significantly” or “substantially”—are associated with higher observed growth rates. Based on these insights, the study proposed an intensity-sensitive and threshold-based framework for assessing progress on non-quantified SDG targets. The proposed approach enhances methodological consistency, improves cross-country comparability, and strengthens the communication of SDG progress for policymakers and broader audiences.

SESRIC’s participation contributed to the ongoing discussions on improving SDG monitoring methodologies and supporting the development of more coherent and policy-relevant frameworks for future global development agendas.