Measuring the Economic and Social Impact of Innovation for Sustainable Development
5. Policy and learning
Seventeen Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets provide options for policy promoting innovation for sustainable development and measurement initiatives to identify the economic and social impacts of such policy once it has been implemented.
How policy is implemented is important to how measurement can be made of innovation for sustainable development influenced by the implemented policy. The implemented policy could be a direct intervention affecting the behaviour of institutional units or an indirect policy to encourage training, capital expenditure or trade related to sustainable development. Once the implementation of the policy is clear, statistical measurement can follow to identify innovation for sustainable development and then to identify and measure, over time, economic and social impacts.
The resulting data can be used to produce statistics which can be used as indicators of the state of the innovation system or its change over time. Indicators are also be combined to produce composite indicators for monitoring the effectiveness of policy and supporting policy evaluation.
Monitoring and evaluation of implemented policy support policy learning about what works and what does not and provides an empirical basis for changing the policy, and its implementation, to get better results.
Part of the policy challenge is dealing with 17 SDGs and 169 targets. Here international organisations can be helpful and an example is the UNESCO Mexico – Government of the State of Guanajuato initiative to declare a year of innovation in the State of Guanajuato and to conduct forums on various aspects of innovation for sustainable development (UNESCO Mexico 2017).
Also relevant is the work of the Development Co-operation Directorate (DCD) of the OECD and its Development Assistance Committee (DAC) (OECD 2017) on the SDGs. The work includes improving policy coherence, promoting investment in sustainable development, supporting inclusive growth and wellbeing and ensuring the
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planet’s sustainability. More general approaches to policy in the OECD can be found in Gault and Huttner (2008) and in OECD (2006, 2015a, 2015b).
Country policies can also contribute to the policy debate in the State of Guanajuato and an example is the new German high-tech strategy which addresses sustainable development (BMBF 2014, p. 10) and deals with some of the same industries that are being examined in Guanajuato, such as automotive and auto parts, pharmaceuticals and health services.
The conclusion is that the State of Guanajuato is not working in isolation and partnerships, like that with UNESCO Mexico, and international organisations and countries with similar objectives can contribute to the goal of promoting innovation for sustainable development leading to the desired economic and social impacts.
6. Conclusions
This paper has reviewed the statistical measurement challenges for observing the economic and social impacts of innovation for sustainable development.
As innovation for sustainable development can happen in any economic sector, the System of National Accounts sector definitions are used, and a general definition of innovation is proposed that can be applied in any of the sectors. To guide statistical measurement and to support analysis, a systems framework has been introduced.
The systems approach includes the boundary or framework conditions which influence what goes on in the system and can be changed by policy interventions.
Policy is an integral part of understanding and influencing the impacts of innovation for sustainable development, and statistical measurement is necessary if the implemented policy is to be monitored and evaluated, leading to a better policy. This paper proposes a progamme that can lead to better policy and better outcomes.
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