Germany - Case study
Link to platform
Global indicators https://sustainabledevelopment-germany.github.io/ National indicators https://sustainabledevelopment-deutschland.github.io/en/
Why was Open SDG chosen?
The NRPs from the USA and the UK were convincing examples of a successful reporting platform. The large number of instructions and explanations made it easier to set up the site and the international exchange about further features within the framework of the open source project ensures a constant improvement in quality.
Which organisation was responsible for choosing and implementing the platform?
The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis)
How did you set up your country platform based on Open SDG?
We have forked the British website and made all necessary adjustments on this basis. Afterwards, the data and metadata were uploaded and a number of translations were implemented.
How long did it take to set up the platform?
In fact, it took quite a long time from the fork of the NRP to the release, but this had nothing to do with technical difficulties.
How do you upload data and metadata into the platform?
Data is taken from our internal database and converted into the required CSV format. Metadata is changed directly in the md-files. Edits are made locally using the open-source text editor “Atom” and are pushed into the GitHub repository.
How is the platform hosted? (GitHub, local server, other platform)
The staging as well as the production version is hosted on GitHub.
How are support and maintenance managed for the platform?
Destatis performs all platform maintenance for translations, content updates, data and metadata updates, Open SDG version upgrades and all other customizations. Technical support is provided by the Open SDG team.
What languages is your platform available in?
English and German
What customisations were added to the Open SDG platform?
Some layout and navigation adjustments were made. Destatis also set up a second website to report indicators for the national sustainability strategy and further visual changes were made to this.
What advice and lessons learned could you give to other countries considering using Open SDG?
Open SDG offers the opportunity to create a great reporting platform with comparatively little effort. Due to the various wikis and the great support of the Open SDG team it was possible for us to create the site even without deep IT knowledge and only by learning-by-doing.