Chapter 1: The role of LRGAs in the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Short introduction

Lecture

15 min

Slides 1-7

This module enriches the central tasks of LRGAs by connecting them to the reporting of the global agenda. What can LRGAs do in this sense?

Raising awareness

LRGs may be unaware of their role in the 2030 Agenda or may fear that they are too small or lack the necessary knowledge or capacity (human, technical or financial resources) to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. Based on this, LRGAs could carry out campaigns to help LRGs raise awareness and to help citizens understand their role in: 1) the implementation of the SDGs in their territories; and 2) the definition and evaluation of national and territorial strategies (including participation in the VNR).

Advocacy

LRGAs have an important role to play in facilitating the participation of LRGs in the development of national SDG strategies to ensure that they reflect and respond to local circumstances, needs and priorities, following a bottom-up approach. To achieve this, LRGAs must gather data, knowledge and experience from their LRGs, but also from their territorial stakeholders and put together a consolidated political message based on this content. If LRGs have a sense of ownership of the SDGs and a part to play in determining their roles and responsibilities, their involvement in implementation will be greater.

Support for implementation

LRGAs can promote the exchange of best practices among their members, identifying policy challenges that have an impact on the localization of the SDGs and they can make recommendations for improvements. They can also foster decentralized cooperation and cooperation towards achieving more effective development. They are important for promoting the effective implementation of decentralization and can forge links with key sectoral ministries and also local government agencies to foster collaboration in the task of localization.

Monitoring, evaluation and reporting

LRGAs play a key role in promoting the participation of LRGs and other stakeholders in the monitoring and evaluation of the SDGs at the national level, helping them with data collection, monitoring and assessment at the local level and with pooling efforts and resources to ensure local achievements are incorporated in national reports. This is directly related to the role of LRGAs in advocacy: they should work, through advocacy actions, to help national government to ensure that national monitoring systems also include local realities. Reinforcing local capacities in this field should also be a priority of LRGAs.