What is a Voluntary Local Review?
A Voluntary Local Review (VLR) is a process through which sub-national governments undertake a voluntary review of their progress
towards delivering the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They are guided by the same principles as those of
the SDGs – leave no one behind; the right to the city and multi-stakeholder engagement; universality across developed and developing
countries; adoption of an all-encompassing strategy to envision the desired future by 2030; the need for a robust evidence base for action;
and embracing and integration of environmental, economic, spatial, and social systems.
Why conduct a Voluntary Local Review?
Although VLRs have yet to become an official part of the review architecture of the
2030 Agenda, they hold the potential to bridge the gap between local action and the
national and global conversation on sustainable development. Specifically, a VLR:
- 1Allows the local government to listen to the needs of its people and reflect them into local policymaking.
- 2Invites self-reflection, by diagnosing the state and pointing to pathways for better localization of the SDGs
- 3Provides for a process that is data-driven and can be used to plan for action to achieve the future we want
- 4Gives a local take on the global conversation of sustainable development