Chapter 2 THE NEW REFUGEE INDICATOR IN THE 2030 SDG AGENDA The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development makes an ambitious commitment of “leaving no one behind” in its implementation. The United Nations General Assembly Resolution37 that adopted the Agenda recognized the importance of addressing the needs of refugees, internally displaced persons and migrants. However, out of the 231 indicators in the global indicator framework designed to measure progress towards meeting the 169 SDG targets, which was developed by the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEGSDGs) and adopted by the General Assembly in 2017, 38 none specifically mentioned refugees or displacement. This had an unintended consequence of lowering the visibility of some of the most vulnerable populations in the 2030 Agenda, and therefore also making it more difficult for UNHCR to advocate for improved disaggregation of data in national statistical systems. UNHCR worked within the IAEG-SDGs to ensure that the “leave no one behind” commitment included forcibly displaced persons. This advocacy, together with the high levels of displacement during the following years, created momentum for the recognition of an additional indicator on refugees. The indicator was approved by the UN Statistical Commission at its 51st session in March 2020. 39 The new indicator is: 10.7.4 “Proportion of population who are refugees, by country of origin” and is computed as follows: [Number of refugees by country of origin at endyear/(End-year population in country of origin+ number of refugees by country of origin at endyear)]*100,000 UNHCR is the custodian agency of this indicator and has commenced regular monitoring and biannual reporting. As shown in Figure 13, Syria, South Sudan and Eritrea have the greatest proportion of the national population who are refugees, with 27,900, 16,800 and 12,500 per 100,000 inhabitants, respectively. Figure 13 | SDG Indicator 10.7.4 Syria 27,900 South Sudan 16,800 Eritrea 12,500 Venezuela* 11,400 Central African Rep. 11,400 *Includes Venezuelans displaced abroad 37 https://undocs.org/en/A/RES/70/1 38 https://undocs.org/A/RES/71/313 26 39 https://unstats.un.org/unsd/statcom/51st-session/documents/ UNHCR > GLOBAL TRENDS 2019