Press Release
A new Afrobarometer Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Scorecard for Liberia shows the country is doing worse than five years ago when it comes to unemployment and gender equality in financial control but has recorded progress on poverty and awareness of climate change.
The Afrobarometer SDG Scorecard, which provides citizens’ assessments of Liberia’s progress on important aspects of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, also shows mixed results on many of the indicators of the SGDs, including access to medical care, education, gender equality in technology use, and access to clean water and reliable energy.
The newly developed Afrobarometer SDG Scorecards highlight citizens’ experiences and evaluations of their country’s performance on democracy and governance, poverty, health, education, energy supply, water and sanitation, inequality, gender equity, and other priorities reflected in 12 of the 17 SDGs. These citizen assessments can be compared to official UN tracking indicators. They present both summary assessments for each SDG – via blue, green, yellow, and red “stoplights” – as well as the data behind these assessments.
Afrobarometer, an independent pan-African survey research network, released scorecards for five West African countries on Monday as part of a series of regional webinars focusing on progress toward the SDGs in Africa.
Speaking at the webinar, Daniel Armah-Attoh, Afrobarometer project manager for anglophone West Africa and North Africa, said the Afrobarometer SDG Scorecards are unique in highlighting the perspectives of ordinary citizens – the intended beneficiaries of the SDGs.
“The SDGs are intended to improve the lives of people, and numerous important indicators and scorecards are being used to track progress,” he said. “Looking at how these citizen assessments compare or contrast with other SDG indicators should stimulate debate, help to identify gaps, and support action to move forward in each country.”
Afrobarometer SDG Scorecards for 31 countries are being released in May-July 2021. All scorecards can be accessed on the Afrobarometer website’s SDG Scorecards page.
Afrobarometer surveys
Afrobarometer is a non-partisan African survey research network that provides reliable data on citizens’ experiences and evaluations of democracy, governance, and quality of life. Seven rounds of surveys have been completed in up to 38 countries since 1999. Round 8 surveys (2019/2021) cover 34 countries.
Afrobarometer’s national partners in all regions of Africa conduct face-to-face interviews in the language of the respondent’s choice. In the most recent survey in Liberia, the Center for Democratic Governance interviewed a nationally representative, random, stratified probability sample of 1,200 adult citizens between October and December 2020.
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