From Reporting to Action: How “Voluntary Local Review” can amplify local sustainability?

Monday, 28 June 2021, 19:30 - 21:00 (JST) / 10:30-12:00 (GMT)

In 2018 four pioneer local governments—Kitakyushu, New York, Toyama, and Shimokawa—presented their Voluntary Local Review (VLR) of progress towards achieving the 2030 Agenda. Ever since, the VLR movement has grown, with an increasing number of local and regional governments presenting their own VLR each year. Despite the unprecedented challenges humanity faced in 2020, VLRs have served to ratify commitments by local and regional governments to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Moreover, recent Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs), such as that by Japan in 2021, are recognising and referring to the important role of VLRs.

Since the VLR movement was launched, the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) has made significant efforts to support the creation of the four existing Japanese VLRs (as of June 2020) and engage in global processes to accelerate local action on the SDGs. In 2020, IGES presented the first volume of the “State of the Voluntary Local Reviews” series that provided assessment of the first two years of VLRs and analysis of the VLR launched in 2018 and 2019.

This webinar celebrates the launching of the second volume of the “State of the Voluntary Local Reviews” report. Entitled “From reporting to action,” the report analyses the progress of VLRs and outlook of the VLRs conducted in 2020. This webinar will share the main findings of the report and bring together cities that conducted a VLR, providing an opportunity for participants to exchange experiences and lessons learnt. Through this open conversation, we aim at highlighting the benefits VLR can bring to local governments, thereby encouraging other local governments to take up this challenge. By covering the development of the VLR movement during 2020, this webinar hopes to be an input to the 2021 high-level political forum (HLPF 2021).

More information: https://www.iges.or.jp/en/events/20210628