Alternatively, assessing government budgets may be sufficient to provide an estimate of the total amount of ODA to be spent on STI-related government priorities, but the timing and lack of detail of these estimates may create challenges relating to the accuracy when compared to official ODA and other development finance. Budget estimates are also unlikely to adequately determine the financial resources spent on supporting STI development in individual countries, information that will be important for the monitoring of the SDG. A key conclusion of the paper is the need for better alignment of definitions across the STI and development communities so each can satisfy its need for data-driven policy analysis without creating potential conflicts of interpretation. In response to the need to address other important cross-cutting policy areas, such as gender and environment, the Working Party on Development Finance Statistics have over the past decade agreed to the creation of dedicated markers, which facilitates monitoring and comparison of activities that addresses a certain policy area.