Closing the SDGs action gap – from “monitoring hype” to multi-level action
On 14 March 2024, Tallinn Sustainability Governance Hub organised an online side event to the UN Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) yearly Regional Forum, this year focused on the theme: “Reinforcing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the Economic Commission for Europe region in times of multiple crises: The effective delivery of sustainable, resilient and innovative solutions”. Here we provide some of the highlights from the session.
The session featured the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), the UN Environment Programme’s Cities Division and representatives from the Tallinn and Tbilisi city administrations, discussing how stakeholders at all levels can work together to close the SDG action gap, from now until 2030. JRC opened the session with a presentation of their new research designed to help making informed decisions about local SDG implementation, drawing on a global analysis of published Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs). The presentation kick-started a discussion about the challenges and opportunities for cities to go beyond the “monitoring hype” and focus on actions to achieve SDG impact.
Watch the recording of the session:
Voluntary Local Reviews – what can they really tell us?
Dr. Iraklis Stamos, team leader at JRC working on SDG localisation, presented the centre’s ongoing stock-taking exercise and analysis of actions reported in cities’ and regions’ Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs). VLRs are voluntary reports where local and regional governments review their actions and progress towards the global goals, and submit their reports to the UN. Often, the review involves wide stakeholder engagement and consultations at the local level. Among the over 300 published VLRs available globally, 70% are produced by cities or municipalities, and 42% in Europe.
So what do these reviews tell us?
In the evolving analysis of the VLRs that the JRC is carrying out – referred to as the “local SDG mosaic” – there are already some interesting insights regarding the type of actions that cities typically report. In the session, Dr Stamos presented some of the results from 60 VLRs with over 1000 actions analysed so far, focussing on SDG 11: sustainable cities and communities.
- Mobility topped the categories of actions reported under SDG 11, followed by economic development, housing and employment.
- Programmes and initiatives were the most common action types, followed by plans. The least reported type identified was service.
- Infrastructure investments and legislation were the most commonly reported measures, followed by education (with regards to legislation, this includes reviews on applying national-level legislation).
A final interesting finding was that very few VLRs specify disaggregated target groups for the actions, such as youth, elderly, gender etc.
For policy-makers and other stakeholders at the international, EU and national levels, this type of analysis can help to better understand where cities are currently focussing their efforts and tailor support accordingly, or to fill gaps. Cities themselves can use the analysis to benchmark how their actions compare to what is commonly reported. Future plans for the local SDG mosaic include an assessment of how impactful actions are.
What type of multilevel governance mechanisms should be fostered?
Just coming back from the 6th UN Environment Assembly’s Cities and Regions Summit in Nairobi, Ms. Gulnara Roll, Head of Cities Unit at Energy and Climate Branch of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), brought a few snapshots from what was concluded there with regards to cities’ SDG and climate work. One important take-away was that more formalized national and international institutional arrangements and procedures for engaging local and subnational governments should be encouraged, such as the Coalition for High Ambition Multi-Level Partnerships (CHAMP) Initiative for the Paris Agreement (with 63 countries joined). This requires an active role played by national governments, which sometimes needs awareness-raising and capacity for leading engagement with local authorities.
From the bottom up – cities making active moves to improve SDG implementation
In the final part of the session, Ms. Krista Kampus, head of international and EU affairs for the city of Tallinn, shared more about how Tallinn is seeking to tackle SDG implementation at the city level, focusing on delivering on the Tallinn 2035 strategy. This work involves linking the KPIs of the strategy to SDG targets, making the grounds for the data analysis of future VLRs. Through the work on strategy implementation, the city of Tallinn has further recognised the need to work more on sustainability governance – as a way to foster sustainability mindset throughout the city administration and focus on how to improve the impact of actions towards sustainable development outcomes. The European Green Capital year has catalysed some of this work, which continues in 2024.
Mr. Vakhtang Lomjaria, Head of the Municipal Department of Economic Development of Tbilisi ity hall, highlighted some of Tbilisi’s work on shaping a sustainable and healthy city, including through several projects aimed at improving the city’s green spaces and reducing air pollution. He pointed to the importance of data to track progress, and shared an update about Tbilisi’s pending VLR that is currently under elaboration.
Contact information:
Stina Heikkilä
stina.heikkila@tallinnlv.ee
Sustainability Governance Advisor
