Quality Infrastructure for Sustainable Development Index - The story behind the data

On 17 June 2022, UNIDO launched the Quality Infrastructure for Sustainable Development (QI4SD) Index. The QI4SD Index was developed in collaboration with partner organizations of the International Network on Quality Infrastructure (INetQI), and its development was funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). The index is composed by 36 indicators related to quality infrastructure and covers 137 countries.

To celebrate the launch of the QI4SD Index, its website and the report publication of its key results was presented. UNIDO invited stakeholders and partners to participate in a high-level panel discussion. High-level speakers from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), International Accreditation Forum (IAF), the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) and the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML) convened to share some key insights and interpretations of the QI4SD Index and its contribution to sustainable development. Furthermore, they discussed how their organization’s mandates in quality infrastructure (QI) enable this, the aggregation of indicators into the 3Ps of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – People, Prosperity and Planet, and the importance of and need for reliable data, collecting it, and making it publicly available to all QI stakeholders. The opportunities and challenges facing data collection in an increasingly digitalized world were also touched upon. The event was attended by more than 190 participants from 63 different countries.

Furthermore, during the launching event, a brief demonstration of the QI4SD Index website was given, where all data can be downloaded, as well as the methodology used to develop and build the index, particularly the identification of the QI indicators, and clustering of them into People, Prosperity and Planet.

The need for improvements in QI to achieve the SDGs was emphasized in the closing of the event.

Recording of the QI4SD Index launch is available here.

For more information contact Juan Pablo Davila (j.davila [at] unido.org (j[dot]davila[at]unido[dot]org))