Measuring the Implementation of Sustainable Development …
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in the “Quality of Life” domain comprising health, work-life balance, education,
social relations and subjective wellbeing, civic engagement and governance, personal
security and environment. On the other domain evaluated by IBE—“Material Life
Conditions” aggregating: economic wellbeing, economic vulnerability, work and
salary—, the slowdown is notorious, but with a recovery phase started in 2015. The
message IBE promotes is quite different from the WeGIx, but the comparison of
the two indexes’ results should not be interpreted as a contradiction because the
two indexes address different variables at different scales. However, the reality in
analysis is the same: the Portuguese population. WeGIx focus on local communities’
characteristics within the framework of the SDGs, taking the country as reference,
while IBE analyses the national reality in a broader scope of wellbeing, but without
taking into account that Portugal is not a homogenous country.
Notwithstanding the fact that Portugal is small and mainly rural, the country considerable diversity becomes clear through WeGIx results. The design of governance
strategies and public policies should express, enhance and strengthen this diversity
and, most important, should not be the cause of inequalities reproduction nor an
opportunity for asymmetries worsening. The value of WeGIx should be considered
in this context: the objective measurement of life conditions at a local scale.
WeGIx results unveiling a sharpening of sustainable life conditions inequalities
in the country stress the importance of adopting tools to monitor the implementation
of the UN 2030 Agenda at a local level. One significant structural gap found in this
work was the lack of sufficient and updated data in the national official statistical
databases. In order to set monitoring tools to follow up the UN 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development implementation in an adequate manner, there is a need to
integrate different databases of governmental origin. Furthermore, considering that
academic databases are reliable and credible sources, these should also be integrated
in the official statistical system to enhance monitoring and report capacity.
Acknowledgements WeGIx is a research project of FP-ENAS—UFP Energy, Environment and
Health Research Unit funded by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. through project
UID/MULTI/4546/2016.
The authors expressed their gratitude to Carolina Borba Oliveira for English reviewing.
Appendix
See Tables 8, 9 and 10.
237
in the “Quality of Life” domain comprising health, work-life balance, education,
social relations and subjective wellbeing, civic engagement and governance, personal
security and environment. On the other domain evaluated by IBE—“Material Life
Conditions” aggregating: economic wellbeing, economic vulnerability, work and
salary—, the slowdown is notorious, but with a recovery phase started in 2015. The
message IBE promotes is quite different from the WeGIx, but the comparison of
the two indexes’ results should not be interpreted as a contradiction because the
two indexes address different variables at different scales. However, the reality in
analysis is the same: the Portuguese population. WeGIx focus on local communities’
characteristics within the framework of the SDGs, taking the country as reference,
while IBE analyses the national reality in a broader scope of wellbeing, but without
taking into account that Portugal is not a homogenous country.
Notwithstanding the fact that Portugal is small and mainly rural, the country considerable diversity becomes clear through WeGIx results. The design of governance
strategies and public policies should express, enhance and strengthen this diversity
and, most important, should not be the cause of inequalities reproduction nor an
opportunity for asymmetries worsening. The value of WeGIx should be considered
in this context: the objective measurement of life conditions at a local scale.
WeGIx results unveiling a sharpening of sustainable life conditions inequalities
in the country stress the importance of adopting tools to monitor the implementation
of the UN 2030 Agenda at a local level. One significant structural gap found in this
work was the lack of sufficient and updated data in the national official statistical
databases. In order to set monitoring tools to follow up the UN 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development implementation in an adequate manner, there is a need to
integrate different databases of governmental origin. Furthermore, considering that
academic databases are reliable and credible sources, these should also be integrated
in the official statistical system to enhance monitoring and report capacity.
Acknowledgements WeGIx is a research project of FP-ENAS—UFP Energy, Environment and
Health Research Unit funded by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. through project
UID/MULTI/4546/2016.
The authors expressed their gratitude to Carolina Borba Oliveira for English reviewing.
Appendix
See Tables 8, 9 and 10.