9th Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development – Side Event

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LEAD FOR SDGS LOCALISATION IN PAKISTAN PROGRAMME PRESENTED THE PROGRESS OF THE VSR PAKISTAN 2022 AT APFSD SIDE EVENT

Online (Monday, March 28, 2022) Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development – Side event on “Bridging the Gap: Experience of Subnational Governments in Reporting & Monitoring SDGs Achievements’’ is organised online by UCLG ASPAC.

UCLG ASPAC has initiated the Voluntary Sub-national Review (VSR) process in four countries i.e., Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. In Pakistan, the LEAD for SDGs Localisation programme with the technical and financial support of UCLG World, initiated the VSR process by engaging field experts and with the collaboration of the Local Council Associations in four provinces and the Association of Development of Local Governance at the national level in January 2022 in Pakistan.

LEAD for SDGs Programme team consisted of Team Leader, Mr Anwar Hussain, Coordinator, South-Southwest Sub Region Asia, UCLG-ASPAC, Ms Sabeena Gul along with Consultant, Mr Haroon Sarwar participated in this regional Side Event.

The speakers from Pakistan presented the experiences and findings gathered during the exercise of the VSR process. The data relating to the local government contribution to SDGs implementation, collected during the VSR process will be fed in the Voluntary National Review report of Pakistan 2022, said Mr Anwar Hussain.

In this regard, the team briefed the participants that a number of meetings with the Federal SDGs Secretariate, Ministry of Planning Development, and Special Initiatives Pakistan before initiating the VSR process have been done to incorporate VSR data in the VNR report of Pakistan 2022.


Bridging the Gap: Experience of Subnational Governments in Reporting and Monitoring SDGs Achievement

28 March 2022 (Monday), 17:15-18:30 (GMT+7)

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ensure an inclusive, equitable, prosperous, and sustainable
future for all. Subnational governments play a vital role in achieving the 2030 Agenda, with over 65%
of the SDGs actionable at the local level.
It is essential to acknowledge the immense work that the subnational governments put into the SDGs
localisation, an effort without which the SDGs would be ultimately unattainable. Hence, UCLG ASPAC
aims at collecting the information/data on what subnational governments are doing for the
localisation of SDGs in their respective countries. The information is not only including the local data
that shows the impact of the SDGs mainstreamed policies but the qualitative information of the
subnational government’s experiences, policies, and practices, embedded for localisation of SDGs in
local services. It will also include the role of the national association of subnational governments in
SDGs localisation.

https://twitter.com/LEAD4SDGs/status/1506224758018514945?s=20&t=K9L06IZPM50PjweHAp_WDQ


UCLG ASPAC has initiated the Voluntary Sub-national Review (VSR) process in four countries i.e.,
Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines, and Voluntary Local Review (VLR) in cities of
Surabaya and Jakarta of Indonesia with the technical and financial support of UNESCAP and Asian
Development Bank, respectively. Previously UCLG ASPAC in collaboration with IGES supported the
VLR Hamamatsu.

Voluntary Subnational Review (VSR) is a country-wide, bottom-up subnational reporting process that provides both comprehensive and in-depth analyses of the corresponding national environments for SDG localization. VSR is also comprised of the experiences of Local and Regional Governments from different parts of the country in implementing the SDGs on the ground.

It is essential to acknowledge even more the immense work that local and provincial governments put into localization, an effort without which the SDGs would be ultimately unattainable (although if they do not label their actions as “SDGs”). Hence, the LEAD for SDGs programme and UCLG planned at the collecting information on what local governments in Pakistan are doing for the localisation of SDGs in their respective territories. The information, including not only the local data that shows the impact of the SDGs mainstreamed policies but the qualitative information of the local and provincial government’s experiences, policies, and practices, is embedded for the localisation of SDGs in municipal services. 

LEAD for SDGs Localisation programme with the technical and financial support of UCLG World, initiated the VSR process by engaging field experts and with the collaboration of the Local Council Associations in four provinces and the Association of Development of Local Governance at the national level in January 2022 in Pakistan. LEAD program team held a number of meetings with the Federal SDGs Secretariate, Ministry of Planning Development, and Special Initiatives Pakistan before initiating the exercise that the data related to the local government contribution to SDGs implementation, collected during the VSR process will be fed into the Voluntary National Review report of Pakistan 2022.

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Undergoing the VSR and VLR process bridges the gap in the national reporting process which supports
the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda in the Asia-Pacific region and captures how subnational
governments are moving towards recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Progress on the VSR and
VLRs will be presented at this side event.


Expected Outcome
The side event will allow subnational governments, including local government and local government
associations, to present the progress of the VSR and VLR reports which aim to be formally launched at
the High-Level Political Forum. Speakers will share their initiatives and contribution to the country’s
Voluntary National Review (VNR) as well as presents their experience including challenges and
opportunities. Expected outcomes of the side event are:

  • Active and visible participation of subnational governments in the implementation of SDGs (as
    well as stronger and better references to the initiatives of local governments and their
    involvement in the VNRs).
  • Dialogue with national government and partners that supported the review and reporting process.

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