The UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) organized a global workshop to support evidence-based voluntary national reviews (VNRs) in 2025. Thirty-nine countries will present their VNRs to the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in July 2025.

Hosted by the UN Office for Sustainable Development (UNOSD), the first global workshop took place in Incheon, Republic of Korea, from 3-5 December 2024. It sought to “facilitate practical exchange of experiences and knowledge among countries [and to] explore specific issues and challenges related to the VNR preparations.”

According to the programme, in providing the foundation for evidence-based VNRs, reliable data and statistics serve to ensure a meaningful assessment of progress on the SDGs. It acknowledges that while “countries have made significant strides in enhancing their monitoring frameworks for the SDGs” and improved the “inclusion of data and progress assessments in VNRs and overall SDG reporting,” challenges remain. Barriers include data availability, data disaggregation, and data collection, as well as human and financial constraints for SDG monitoring.

To help address these challenges, countries are undertaking efforts to improve data integration, innovation, and coordination across government for better SDG reporting and information for VNRs, the programme notes.

In his opening statement, President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Bob Rae highlighted VNRs as critical tools to monitor progress achieved, share good practices and lessons learned, and identify gaps and challenges encountered. He underscored the workshop’s role in helping the 2025 presenters shape and improve the preparation of their VNRs.

Rae welcomed the “nearly universal participation” in the VNR process, with 190 countries and the EU having carried out reviews. Of those, he said, 157 countries have prepared more than one VNR.

Rae emphasized the need to ensure that the VNRs are inclusive and evidence-based, underpinned by solid, up-to-date, and disaggregated data. He further underscored the importance of VNRs following a whole-of-society approach, engaging stakeholders to “bring about more substantive, credible, and actionable outcomes.”

The workshop brought together officials responsible for the coordination and preparation of VNR and representatives from national statistical offices (NSOs) to share best practices for developing evidence-based reviews.

The 2024 VNR Synthesis Report, the 2025 edition of the handbook for the preparation of VNRs, and updated Secretary-General’s voluntary common reporting guidelines for VNRs informed the discussions. [HLPF 2025]