What are Voluntary Subnational Reviews (VSRs)?

Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) is a mechanism aimed to follow-up and review regularly the Agenda 2030; the reviews must be country-led and country-driven, undertaken by both developed and developing countries, and involve multiple stakeholders. Specific reviews are meant to report and monitor specific progress at the local and territorial level.

Supporting subnational leadership in the 2030 Agenda:

The Community of Practice Regions4SDGs is a Regions4 collective and participatory project to support SDGs localization in subnational governments. Based on peer-review, it acts as a platform for region-to-region exchange of experiences, mutual support, capacity building, and alignment of statements both at technical and political levels. It aims to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and strengthen territorial approaches, scaling-up regional pathways from isolated good practices to collective modalities of implementation, ultimately influencing more ambitious results in the national and international frameworks. The information gathered from the Community support further contributions of subnational governments to the High-level Political Forum and the work of the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments. Below are some goals achieved by different countries which are displayed in their report.

Good practice examples:

1. Enforcing the law, implementing SDGs

The Welsh Government has made sustainable development the central organizing principle of each of the 44 public bodies by ensuring law enforcement to the SDGs implementation. In 2015 it established the Well-being of Future Generations Act 2015, which translated the SDGs into law and nominated the first Future Generations Commissioner. This Act provides a strict access to accountability and reporting, but also a community approach to make people aware of the SDGs.

2. Localizing the SDGs

The Multiyear Plan, promoted by the São Paulo State Government, is a four-year policy guidance that includes targets, resources, and timeframe for each area of action.The Assessment of the 2016/2019 Multiyear Plan aims to mainstream the SDGs. To do so, the report counts civil society participation through public hearings on five themes (people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnerships) that are connected to the 2030 Agenda. The experience of São Paulo reflects the importance of elaborating an institutional arrangement to integrate the different sectoral policies and thematic bodies, mobilizing the entire administrative system for concerted action on the SDGs.

3. 2030 Agenda: Transform Catalonia, Improve the World

The Government of Catalonia adopted the National Plan for the Implementation of the SDGs, resulting in the report 2030 Agenda: Transform Catalonia, Improve the World, gathering 920 commitments for implementation both within and beyond Catalonia. The monetary system used by the Government is an integrated system of SDG indicators for Catalonia, fostering principles of transparency and access to information. Catalonia is a good example of the importance of subnational governments in collecting and analyzing disaggregated data and indicators, which are a fundamental aspect of monitoring and reviewing the SDGs progress to identify inequalities within countries, support evidence-based decision making at all levels, and enable tailored-cut action to ensure no one is left behind.


For more detailed information about the Regions4’s annual report, you can check this LINK.