Voluntary Local Reviews – An Opportunity for Cities to Shape Global Agendas

On January 20, 2021, an online workshop on Voluntary Local Reviews, the implementation of the SDGs in cities and data collection was held. The event was organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

More than 130 experts, representatives of local and regional governments, international organizations from all over the world took part in the workshop. The online session was divided into three parts. Riina Jussila, Sustainable Development Officer of UN DESA moderated the first part, where Angela Kim, SDG Program and Data Manager of the Los Angeles Municipality (USA), Natasha Primo, Head of Research of the Cape Town Municipality (South Africa), and Masayuki Kitahiro, Counsellor of the Government of Japan, presented their speeches. The speakers discussed what difficulties may arise in monitoring the achievement of the SDGs at the local level.

The second part of the workshop was held in the format of an open discussion. Participants had the opportunity to share how their cities collect data to prepare VLRs. Among the speakers were representatives of Buenos Aires (Argentina), Barcelona (Spain), Turku (Finland), Bristol (Great Britain), Asker (Norway), etc.

Within the framework of the third part, reports were presented by Consultant of the UN Economic Commission for Europe Agata Krause, Coordinator of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Stefano Marta, Researcher at the UN Center for Regional Development Nana Urakami and others.

The Eurasia Regional Section of UCLG was represented by Secretary General Rasikh Sagitov, Development Director Saida Zagidullina, Project Coordinator Tansylu Nurieva, Head of the International Department of the Kazan Municipality (Russia) Ruslan Galiakhmetov and Chief Specialist of the International Department of the Bishkek Municipality (Kyrgyzstan) Meerim Kydyralieva.

21.01.2021

Back to the list