The Centro de Pensamiento Estratégico Internacional (CEPEI)

The Centro de Pensamiento Estratégico Internacional (Cepei) is an independent think tank headquartered in Bogota, Colombia. Over 20 years, they have worked to develop a detailed understanding of global, regional, and national policy processes that support the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. Their mission is to strengthen political processes at the highest governance levels, enabling governments and their partners to better deliver on their sustainable development objectives.

**2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development**

Since inception, Cepei has been tracking global and regional processes from a Latin American perspective. They’re now translating these lessons learned from Latin America for other regions’ use. By taking a regional perspective and being an ambassador for other regions, Cepei offers a new response to the emerging trends of transboundary, polycentric governance.

About the Project

Over the last decade, Cepei has developed a profoundly specialized understanding of the Latin American and Caribbean Voluntary National Review process and transfers knowledge and designs tools that support decision-makers in managing the challenges of making more effective and informed decisions on sustainable development policies.

The SDGVQT provides VNR information for decision-makers monitoring and reporting progress toward meeting the SDGs in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Tracker offers easy and customizable access to relevant data, including the experts’ analysis for the 2030 Agenda reporting. It also helps design data-informed public policies to promote sustainable development at the national and regional levels.

The SDGVQT is robust, tracking the quality of every VNR submitted to the HLPF by LAC countries, analyzing the institutional frameworks for SDG implementation and the quality of the national data ecosystems, and providing recommendations to reporting countries on VNR drafting and presentation.

Specialized: developed for SDG decision-makers and those who influence them, multilateral organizations, governments, media platforms, and fact-checkers. The findings support the work of academia, civil society, and the private sector.
User-friendly: insights, visualizations, and country fact sheets enhance the user experience and allow planners and decision-makers to follow how countries monitor and report the SDGs easily.

Thanks to the SDGVQT, demand-driven data analysis, and evidence has leveraged advocacy strategies for international Fora, such as the UN LAC SDG Regional Forum, the UN High-Level Political Forum, the UN World Data Forum, the UN General Assembly, and the SDG Summit.

The platform comprises three dashboards:

A VNR Quality Index, which measures the quality of the VNRs according to their degree of alignment with the reporting commitments established in the 2030 Agenda and related instruments
An SDG National Governance Quality Index, which analyzes the governance structure established by each Latin American and Caribbean country for SDG implementation and monitoring
An SDG Help Desk that provides reporting countries with concrete suggestions for improving VNR quality based on Cepei’s seven years of experience analyzing reports

Call to Action

Generate demand-driven data analysis and evidence to support decision-makers working on monitoring and reporting progress toward meeting the SDGs in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Target Audience

Our main interlocuters are governments at national and local levels, with whom we work to promote the SDGs, strengthen their data and evidence inputs, and support policy processes. Audience: Government officials (decision-makers and those who influence them) responsible for SDG policy making, implementation, and monitoring.

Multilateral organizations: We work at the most senior levels of the UN system to strengthen the institutions supporting global sustainable development, particularly regional and national data and statistical systems.

Civil Society Organizations: NGO partners from universities, think tanks, and international charities to private companies, with a particular emphasis on those specializing in data for stakeholder engagement and contributing to sustainable development.