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IPS298 Renee Sorchik et al.
least an initial set of priority targets to focus on in their development agendas.
Another 12 percent of countries adopted one or more of the targets, but have
not yet set any national target values. These countries have identified at least
an initial set of priority targets, but are in the beginning stages of the
nationalization process. The remaining 16 percent of countries have not yet
adopted any of the child-related targets examined. In most of these countries,
COs indicated the prioritization and target-setting process had not been
completed and in many cases it was stalled due to a change in government
(Figure 1).

Figure 1: Status of adoption and
nationalization of child-related targets

no targets
adopted, 16

adopted, at adopted, no
national
least one value, 12
target has
national
value, 72

National target-setting
Figure 2 shows the relationships between the number of targets adopted
and the number of national target values set. While almost half of countries
adopted 15 or more of the child-related targets, indicating an interest in
bettering the situation of children through the SDG Agenda, many of these
countries have yet to set national values for these targets. If countries were
further along in the national target-setting process, we would expect the
distribution of the number of target values set to mirror that of the number of
targets adopted. However, there is a negative relationship, demonstrating that
while countries have adopted a fair number of child-related targets, they have
not yet set national values for these targets. Just 14 countries set national
target values for 15 or more targets, compared to 44 countries that adopted
15 or more targets. About half of countries set national target values for less
than 5 targets, with 26 not having set any national target values. Among
countries that have not set any national target values, 11 have adopted targets
but not yet set any national values, and another 15 have not yet adopted any
targets.

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