27 June 2016: Morocco, Norway and the Philippines have submitted their executive summaries and other contributions in preparation for the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) at the 2016 session of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF). Morocco reports on its national consultation process to translate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into the national context. Norway highlights a process it has put in place to follow-up on the SDGs. The Philippines outlines actions on SDG monitoring and indicators.
The three countries are among 22 UN Member States who will present VNRs at the 2016 HLPF. The executive summaries and other documents from volunteering countries are available on the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ (DESA) platform for inputs.
According to Morocco, which has submitted its full report, the country organized a national consultation on the contextualization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The consultation sought to identify national priorities related to the SDGs, and involved various Ministries and agencies as well as civil society organizations (CSOs). It reportedly was marked by: the involvement of high-level officials from the Moroccan Government and the Parliament; the organization of four panels on people, planet, peace and partnership; a special day dedicated to civil society and representatives of local authorities; a parallel session on SDGs addressed to children and young people; and a presentation by representatives from the UN system, on tools for SDG implementation and initiatives and projects linked to the 2030 Agenda.
The consultation identified proposals for action to ensure social support for the SDGs and to improve the monitoring process related to their implementation, the report says. These proposals include: the need for capacity building of government staff and local authorities, and of aligning the SDGs with national development strategies; using a sectoral approach that fosters integration and coherence between sectoral development policies; ensuring that SDG indicators are presented in a simplified manner so as to facilitate their understanding by citizens and the media; reviewing and strengthening the operational mechanism for monitoring and evaluation that was in place for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); and considering private finance, innovative financing and public-private partnership (PPPs) in addition to public finance, to support SDG implementation. The Government plans to produce additional periodic national reports beginning after two years of SDG implementation.
In its executive summary, Norway notes that the Prime Minister is engaged internationally on the SDGs, as Co-Chair of the UN Secretary-General’s SDG Advocates. It reports that the Norwegian Parliament has debated the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs several times, and that the Government developed a plan for national follow-up of the SDGs, which is linked to the budget process, and ensures annual reporting on SDG follow-up to the Parliament. According to the summary, responsibility for each of the 17 SDGs is given to a coordinating ministry. Each coordinating ministry has to consult with other ministries involved in the follow-up of various targets under the Goal(s) concerned, and has to report on the status of follow-up for its respective Goal(s) in its budget proposal. The Ministry of Finance then sums up the main points in the national budget white paper, which is presented to the Parliament annually, along with the state budget.
On inclusiveness and participation, the summary indicates that the indigenous peoples’ assembly (the Sami Parliament) will be involved in formal consultation mechanisms, and the Government will continue to consult with stakeholders, including the private sector and business, in the SDG follow-up process.
The summary reports that several SDG targets are likely to remain the focus of political attention and policy development in Norway, including on: sustainable consumption and production (SCP), health and education, equality, employment and migration, and it says sustainable natural resource management and climate change mitigation and adaptation are priority areas for the country. It also reports on initiatives in these areas, including: increasing official development assistance (ODA) for education, with a special focus on girls’ education, education in emergencies and education quality; working in partnerships, including with the private sector, Every Woman Every Child (EWEC), the vaccine alliance GAVI, and the Global Partnership on Education (GPE); supporting climate financing for vulnerable nations, including the least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS), via multilateral mechanisms such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF); reducing illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing as part of sustainable management of fish stocks, including cooperation with Russia in the Barents Sea; chairing the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) for assistance to Palestinians; and facilitating the Colombian peace process, together with Cuba. It also notes that the Norwegian Ministry of Education recommended including the SDGs as part of the curriculum in schools.
The Philippines states, in its executive summary, that the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Technical Secretariat has provided briefings on the 2030 Agenda to Cabinet-level committees of the NEDA Board, other officials, and multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder fora. It also reports that the Government is considering creating a “high-level inter-agency NEDA Committee” to plan and oversee the coordinated implementation of SDG-related policies and programs. According to the document, the Philippines is also conducting an ongoing process of integrating the SDGs into the national long-term vision and goals document (Ambisyon Natin 2040) as well as in national, sectoral and sub-national plans and frameworks. It adds that innovative strategies such as identifying new SDG champions among officials and the private sector may be considered. The Philippines’ summary also reports that CSOs have organized events, such as a workshop on child rights and SDGs, where CSO and government participants used the SDG framework to identify advocacy opportunities to influence decision-makers in addressing priority issues on child protection.
The Philippines is planning to prepare an SDG implementation roadmap to guide government and other key stakeholders on actions, resources, responsibilities and partnerships. A financial plan will accompany the roadmap and be linked to the yearly budget framework and to “public investment programming,” the summary says.
On monitoring, the summary states that: national planning and statistics agencies have jointly led a process to assess and prioritize the global SDG indicators, based on national context. The Government recently issued a policy statement to encourage government agencies to provide data support to monitor the country’s SDG performance. A chapter on the SDGs has been added to the updated Philippine Statistical Development Program 2011-2017 “to ensure government support in the generation of data.” The Government plans to strengthen mechanisms for SDG monitoring and reporting through: an SDG webpage; the development of ‘SDG Watch,’ an initiative to monitor relevance and availability of indicators; and the identification of an SDG Focal Point from each data-source agency to facilitate coordination and data gathering of the indicators. It also notes challenges including unavailability of data, lack of disaggregated data, lack of common definition of terms, overlaps of indicators across SDG goals, and lack of measurement methods for some indicators.
The 2016 HLPF will take place from 11-20 July, with the VNR presentations scheduled for 19-20 July. [Morocco Input (in French)] [Norway Input] [Philippines Input] [Input Platform] [IISD RS Story on Madagascar and Togo Inputs] [IISD RS Story on Egypt, Estonia, Republic of Korea and Samoa Inputs] [IISD RS Story on African Inputs] [IISD RS Story on EEG Inputs] [IISD RS Story on WEOG Inputs] [IISD RS Story on LAC Inputs] [IISD RS Story on HLPF Preparations and Programme]