25 September: On the sidelines of the SDG Summit, New York City (NYC) launched the Voluntary Local Review (VLR) Declaration, which targets local and regional governments worldwide. Per the declaration, local and regional governments formally commit to report on the SDGs, “using existing resources to ensure a low barrier to entry.”
The Declaration was launched on 25 September in New York, US, in the SDG Action Zone.
As reported by NYC, over 20 cities from more than 15 countries signed the VLR Declaration, including: Accra (Ghana); Amman (Jordan); Barcarena (Brazil); Barcelona (Spain); Bristol (UK); Buenos Aires (Argentina); Cape Town (South Africa); Freetown (Sierra Leone); Georgetown (Guyana); Helsinki (Finland); Kazan (Russian Federation); Los Angeles (US); Malmo (Sweden); Mannheim (Germany); Montevideo (Uruguay); New York (US); Orlando (US); Santa Ana (Costa Rica); Santa Fe (Argentina); Santana de Parnaíba (Brazil); Stockholm (Sweden); and Yokohama (Japan).
By signing the declaration, representatives of local and regional governments express their commitment to advancing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the 17 SDGs and their 169 associated targets.
More specifically, they commit to:
- identify how existing strategies, programs, data, and targets align with the SDGs;
- provide at least one forum where stakeholders can come together to share experiences, lessons learned, and information gathered using the framework of the SDGs; and
- submit a VLR to the UN during the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF).
By signing the VLR Declaration, local and regional governments further pledge to use the framework of the SDGs to do their part to help end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and to prevent the “harmful effects of climate change” by 2030. They acknowledge that each signatory will take into consideration their individual structure, data management procedures, and other local dynamics in order to use the SDGs “as a common language” to discuss priorities and share knowledge.
In 2018, NYC was the first city to present its VLR at the UN. As indicated on the New York City Mayor’s Office for International Affairs VLR Declaration webpage, City representatives interested in joining the VLR movement are invited to contact the office via this form. [VLR Declaration]