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Sylvia Szabo, Sinead Mowlds, Joan Manuel Claros, et al.

fective governance, and as such, it has been placed at the centre of the new development agenda
(United Nations 2015a; United Nations 2015b). Effective accountability mechanisms will ensure
progress towards achieving SDG2. To achieve these goals, the development agenda calls for a data
revolution with increased availability, accessibility, and disaggregation of data.
We conducted expert consultations to identify specific challenges faced by data users, which are
likely to hamper accountability and thus, progress towards the achievement of the SDGs. Specif-
ic bottlenecks were identified within selected global and national projects, including activities re-
lated to monitoring progress towards commitments made. Most challenges are due to a lack of
availability, reliability, and transparency of data. Cross country comparison, validation, and difficulty
in measuring (e.g. leadership) of some indicators remain a challenge. Availability and accessibility to
data are the bottlenecks that have been identified when tracking commitments to nutrition us-
ing budget analyses. Reporting investments in the OECD DAC is also challenging due to a lack of
standardisation for data reporting, timing of disbursements, lack of specific codes for nutri-
tion-sensitive and nutrition-specific investments, and poor project data. Tracking OECD investments
is also challenging for users because the website is not user friendly.
In response to the challenges, a four-pillar accountability framework is suggested. The main pil-
lars are data standard setting (involves assessment), data collection (requires communication), data
use (requires enforcement), and policy and practice (involves improvement). This framework (see
Figure 1) focuses on the fundamental role of data use for accountability with the assumption that
achieving accountability for SDG2 is not possible without scaling up investments throughout the full
data cycle. For data users, key principles for a common accountability framework include: standar-
disation, consistency and alignment, transparency, sustainability, institutional framework, and inno-
vation. A clear accountability framework helps to conceptualise the inter-linkages between different
accountability mechanisms as related to data use. Failure to apply a robust accountability framework
for SDG2 may trigger risks related to the progress towards this goal and hampers wider sustainable
development agenda.
Availability of quality data is critical to ensuing and measuring accountability, and the lack of data
and robust evidence is likely to prevent effective policy design and decision making. Accessibility to
data is also important for citizen engagement in social actions and political processes, since the lack
of it can prevent or limit citizen engagement in social and political change. Disaggregation of data
is crucial for understanding and addressing socio-economic inequalities. Ongoing global processes
such as GODAN, the Nutrition for Growth Compact (UK Gov., 2013), and the United Nations Gen-
eral Assembly in September 2016 present important engagement opportunities for improving ac-
countability. Additionally, the SUN Movement is strengthening accountability at country level
(IFPRI, 2015), GODAN is progressing on filling existing gaps in open data, and ONE Campaign is
developing an accountability framework for SDG2. To firmly measure progress and for long-lasting
sustainable accountability, more work is needed. Data use plays a cornerstone role requiring more
institutional frameworks, improved standardisation, consistency/alignment, transparency, and inno-
vation. All these are possible with the proposed framework.
Conflict of Interest and Funding

No conflict of interest was reported by all authors.

Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank David McNair, Katherine Van Waes, Alexander Schmid and Sophie Taylor
of the ONE Campaign for their useful comments and discussions which contributed to this paper.
The authors also thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier version
of this manuscript.

International Journal of Population Studies | 2016, Volume 2, Issue 1 75