Chapter 5: The Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs)
Chapter 5: The Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs)
Lecture 10 min Slides 29-33 Handout 3
During the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) of 2018, the city of New York (USA) announced that it would be the first city to ever present a Voluntary Local Review (VLR) — the reporting mechanism officially established by the United Nations — to the HLPF and that it would do this under the auspices of ECOSOC, as a sign of the progress made towards the achievement Agenda 2030. New York’s announcement brought with it a new concept: the “Voluntary Local Review” (VLR), to complement the existing Voluntary National Reviews (VNR). By April 2019, 181 of the 193 member states of the UN had already presented VNRs, which can be seen at https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/vnrs/). Although the New York report really opened the doors for many to consider the role of cities in implementing the SDGs, the fact is that many other cities had already drawn up similar documents, but without using the new terminology or calling them VLRs. For example, three Japanese cities which also attended HLPF 2018: Kitakyushu, Toyama and Shimokawa, presented contributions to the SDGs using methodologies that were very similar to that of the VNR. Many other cities have also produced their own VLRs for other, but no less relevant, contexts. In fact, there are a vast variety of possibilities, situations and capacities, as shown in the examples attached. The door that opened thanks to the initiative of New York has left the way open for many other questions regarding how cities can take advantage of this opportunity in order to report their own individual efforts towards implementing Agenda 2030 at the local level. It is our intention to use this opportunity to make a first set of reflections about the way ahead for cities thinking about preparing a VLR. 1. What are the possibilities of cities directly reporting to the HLPF and obtaining greater international visibility? 2. What are the main elements that a VLR should contain? 3. How can we produce a report that really helps local government organizations to achieve better delivery? 4. How should a VLR be organized for a local government organization, and by whom?
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