Leaving no one behind, Africa,s journey of localising SdGs

Global shocks disproportionately affect local communities, a reality vividly demonstrated by Africa’s continent, where 17 out of the 20 countries most threatened by climate change are located in Africa and climate change already impacts 2 to 9 percent of national budgets across the region. In this context, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its SDGs become crucial to reduce the threatening impacts of current crises at all levels and ensure that we are leaving no one behind.
The 2030 Agenda and the Agenda 2063 are extremely interlinked, overlapping in areas such as: human development, sustainable economic opportunity, gender equality and youth empowerment, peaceful and inclusive societies, accountable institutions, justice, and environmental sustainability. Hence by implementing Agenda 2063 Member States will ipso facto be meeting global obligations under the SDGs.
Rooted in the 17 SDGs and in convergence with the Agenda 2063, six key transitions with catalytic and multiplier effects across all the SDGs have been identified: (1) food systems; (2) energy access and affordability; (3) digital connectivity; (4) education; (5) jobs and social protection; and (6) climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Transitions cannot be achieved without effective means of implementation, and SDG localization is recognized as a key approach to delivering them.
SDG localization hence becomes a framework to operationalize the SDGs, bringing also the concept of multilevel governance to the very forefront, as only through continuous cooperation across levels efficient and effective progress on the SDGs and beyond can be ensured.
To do so, Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs) and Voluntary Subnational Reviews (VSRs) have emerged as a useful process to localize the SDGs by tracking progress and identifying development priorities. In Africa, already fifteen VLRs/VSRs have been published, and four more are on the way. In 2022, UN-Habitat with UNECA and UCLG Africa, produced the Africa VLR Guidelines, to answer the specific request made by African member States for ECA to produce a common VLR template during the 2020 Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development; and to align the implementation and monitoring of the 2030 Agenda with the continent’s policy priorities and commitments through Agenda 2063.
This event aims to bring forward the good practice of African cities in mainstreaming the localization of the SDGs, and multilevel governance dialogue on the localization of national public policies global agendas. It will particularly discuss the opportunities and challenges encountered as well as how to scale up the process and bring SDG Localization forward. The event will count on different levels of government and actors as well as international good practices.