AI for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals and supporting and promoting action and policy development

The United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) were ratified with much enthusiasm by all UN member states in 2015. However, subsequent progress to meet these goals has been hampered by a lack of data available to measure the SDG indicators (SDIs), and a lack of evidence-based insights to inform effective policy responses. We outline an interdisciplinary program of research into the use of artificial intelligence techniques to support measurement of the SDIs, using both machine learning methods to model SDI measurements and explainable AI techniques to present the outputs in a human-friendly manner. As well as addressing the technical concerns, we will investigate the governance issues of what forms of evidence, methods of collecting that evidence and means of its communication will most usefully inform effective policy development. By addressing these fundamental challenges, we aim to provide policy makers with the evidence needed to take effective action towards realising the Sustainable Development Goals.