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Developing and presenting a Voluntary National Review report: What’s Next?

Together 2030 

An impressive number of 187 countries will have presented Voluntary National Reviews report at the closing of the High-Level Political Forum session in 2022. A number of those countries would have done so not only once, but twice and three times.  The voluntary nature of reports on progress of SDGs implementation at national level carried the concern that Member States would not systematic at this critical reporting. However, their readiness to present VNRs has been highly welcomed by all stakeholders, particularly at Civil Society level. These reports have shown great improvement over the years, including on stakeholders engagement in the national process to develop the VNR report.  The process to develop the VNR at national level leading up to their presentation at global level, specifically at the HLPF session is a significant one. Member States, Civil Society and UN Agencies dedicate significant resources (financial, technical, etc.). It has served to identify gaps, lessons learned, good practices and emerging trends and challenges.  Despite the above, follow up to improvements in SDGs implementation, incorporation of inputs and recommendations and overall clarity of added value of the process is not visible at global level. Consequently, follow up to SDGs implementation cannot be assessed until after Member States decide to present a VNR report for a second, third or fourth time.

It begs the question as to what happens at national level after the highly visible presentation at HLPF in New York.  

  1. Do Member States continue to engage with stakeholders?
  2. Do Member States review the alternate reports prepared by Civil Society?  
  3. How do Member States address the questions presented by other Member States and Civil Society during their presentation of the VNR at HLPF?  
  4. The most important question is how does it help to improve implementation of SDGs at national level?  

This year’s Together 2030 and partners virtual event on the margins of the 2022 session of HLPF will address these questions by providing visibility to Member States and Civil Society actions post presentation of the VNR report in HLPF.      

Objectives  

1.    Provide visibility to actions taken by Member States after their global level presentation of the VNR report.    

2.    Share Civil Society follow up to gaps, challenges and trends identified in the VNR reports with a view to provide inputs and contribute to national level SDGs implementation.    

3.    Address recommendations to Member States on their VNR reports presented in alternative reports as well as independent reports that review VNR reports after they have been presented at HLPF.    

Programme  

Opening  

A quick view of VNR reports presentations to set the scene for the dialogue and exchange.  

Panel  1. Presentation from Governments that have presented more than one report: Mexico, Germany  

Panel 2. Civil Society views from: Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe.  

Fireside chat  Together 2030 representative  Independent reviewer of VNR reports.  

Closing & Wrap up  Co-sponsoring partner  

Register here for the side-event