No level of government alone can ensure the achievement of the SDGs and all need the involvement of local stakeholders. Indeed, 65% of the SDGs need engagement and coordination with local and regional governments to be achieved.
A majority of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets cover activities that refer to daily work of local and regional governments. Two hundred cities and regional governments have developed VLRS in 42 countries since 2018, representing half a billion of inhabitants. All the VLRs are accessible through https://gold.uclg.org/report/localizing-sdgs-boost-monitoring-reporting#field-sub-report-tab-3).
Local and regional governments can present their reviews to national governments and thereby contribute to the preparation of a national review. The UN High-level Political Forum, held annually in New York, serves as an international platform. UCLG organizes Local Governments’ Days at the Forum, where cities can present their voluntary local reviews.
Сities and regional governments have different options to share their VLR within different international platforms of UCLG, UN-Habitat, the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies of Japan (IGES) and UN DESA:
- UCLG platform that show the broader collection of VLRs. https://gold.uclg.org/report/localizing-sdgs-boost-monitoring-reporting#field-sub-report-tab-3
- UN DESA):
https://sdgs.un.org/topics/voluntary-local-reviews
- UN Habitat): https://unhabitat.org/topics/voluntary-local-reviews.
- Institute for Global Environmental Strategies of Japan (IGES), Online Voluntary Local Review Lab: https://www.iges.or.jp/en/projects/vlr
The photo: ron dyar on Unsplash
15.02.2023