Measuring the Implementation of the Agenda 2030 Vision in Its Comprehensive Sense: Methodology and Tool

Abstract

The contribution of the energy sector to human development (HD) is one of the aspects that requires measuring growth of the overall sustainability of HD. The UN program, Agenda 2030, has defined the vision of advanced development by introducing a sustainable HD paradigm, the balanced integrated development paradigm, in three dimensions: economic, social and environmental. The overall performance of countries is not currently assessed; there are several proposals for measuring sustainable HD level, but none have become widely accepted due to their weaknesses. The selected indirect measurement method reflects the interlinkage of development dimensions in real cases of low data availability. By combining the strengths of existing proposals and eliminating their weaknesses, the measuring methodology has been created and an appropriate tool—the Advanced Human Development Index (AHDI)—has been designed, which ensures unity and concordance of all included comprehensive dimension indices. The calculations confirm the accuracy and simplicity of the measurement. The proposed methodology and AHDI, as a simple, balanced index that is based on result-oriented headline indices, provide the big picture, which will be transparent, acceptable and usable for experts, politicians and the global community to assess the achieved development levels and to make strategic decisions for the coming period.