NAIROBI, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations plans to assist African countries to develop capacity to track progress towards achieving the Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs), officials said on Thursday.

Robert Ndugwa, chief of global urban observatory at UN Habitat, said that a lot of governments lack both hardware and software systems to monitor the global goals.

"We will build the capacity of African countries to understand the appropriate methods required to collect, analyze and interpret data for SDGs," Ndugwa said on the sidelines of the first UN Habitat Assembly underway in Nairobi.

He said that governments should ensure that there is the right level of data segregation to allow for a wide coverage so that no one is left behind.

"Our approach will be to strengthen capacity of all relevant institutions to ensure they play their right role of monitoring SDGs," he said.

The UN official observed that global goals are critical because they are development trackers with both social and economic indicators.

He observed that tracking of SDGs requires baseline information against which future advancements can be compared with.

In the areas of SDGs which focus on cities and human settlements, the UN habitat will also build the capacity of local governments to track the formation of urban centers to ensure their sustainability.

Ndugwa revealed that the achievement of SDGs is no longer the role of government alone and so the private sector, academic, civil society and the public should also be involved.