Localizing the Sustainable Development Goals to Accelerate Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: The Current State of Sustainable Development Goal Localization in Asia and the Pacific

Abstract

For the third time since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the international community gathered at the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) at United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York during 9–18 July 2018. Representatives from government, civil society, local and regional governments (LRGs), private sector, academia, and other stakeholders join the HLPF every year to take stock of the progress made in achieving the SDGs. Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has been underway since 2015, and many countries have already defined national strategies, approaches, development plans, and institutional reforms toward achieving the SDGs. However, the need to accelerate implementing efforts was echoed during the HLPF 2018. While implementation of the 2030 Agenda occurs primarily at the national level, SDG achievement depends strongly on progress made at the local level. So far, limited attention has been paid to subnational SDG implementation. However, a growing recognition of the need to localize the SDGs was witnessed at the HLPF 2018, with a number of initiatives and discussions giving attention to the need to accelerate SDG implementation through increased efforts at the local level. Apart from the thematic review of SDG 11 (“Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”), the first Local and Regional Authorities Forum as well as a multi-stakeholder meeting titled Local 2030 were held. Furthermore, the world’s first-ever voluntary local review was presented by New York City, marking it as the first city to report on SDG progress at the local level. In the wake of the growing recognition around the importance of bringing the SDGs to the local level, this governance brief elaborates on the concept of SDG localization and analyzes to what extent localization is considered in the implementation of the SDGs in Asia and the Pacific. Through the lens of policy coherence and a multilevel governance approach, the aim is to provide context to why and how effectively leveraging SDG localization is critical for achieving sustainable development by 2030. Drawing on the member state mechanism of Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) (Box 3), the governance brief looks at localization initiatives highlighted by countries in the Asia and Pacific region and considers issues in need of specific attention for effectively localizing the SDGs.