The Hidden Cost of PDFs in Sustainable Development Evaluation: Why Machine-Readable Data Matters for Policy Analysis
A 2012 PDF on sustainable development evaluation, hosted by EVALSDGs, contains no extractable text—a stark reminder that many critical policy documents remain locked in legacy formats. This article explores the economic logic behind inaccessible data: the hidden costs to evidence-based policy, the technology trends driving a shift toward structured data, and the long-term impact on the supply chain of sustainability evaluation. By analyzing the document''s metadata (created with pdfsam-console and iText), we reveal a systemic challenge that undermines efficient policy analysis. The piece argues for mandatory machine-readable standards to ensure that past and future evaluations can feed into data-driven decision-making, especially for the SDGs.