In South Africa, governmental institutions consulted with civil society to develop localized and meaningful indicators for measuring progress in achieving the SDGs.

Developing meaningful indicators for government institutions helps facilitate the full implementation of the SDGs, and involving civil society expertise - as in the work of the African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum's (APCOF) with Statistics South Africa - ensures that these indicators reflect the needs of communities. Indeed, the inclusion of civil society actors in this process is imperative to ensuring responsive, inclusive, and representative decision-making. Furthermore, monitoring by civil society can be the basis of lobbying for political action.