Monitoring, assessing and reporting progress made

At the global level, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets of the new agenda will be monitored and reviewed using a set of agreed global indicators. This global indicator framework is developed by the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs), while national governments also develop their own national indicators to assist in monitoring progress made on the goals and targets.

In terms of reporting progress on the SDGs, the 2030 Agenda encourages national governments to produce so-called “National Voluntary Reviews” and present them to the High-Level Political Forum of the UN. Below, we explain how this mechanisms is increasingly used by cities to monitor and report progress on the SDGs in “Voluntary Local Reviews”. 

Indicators for measuring SDGs in cities
 

The need to monitor Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) progress on local level goes hand in hand with efforts to localise the global goals and is often one of the main challenges faced by local administrations, either due to lack of data or relevant skills to pursue this activity.

Several international and national institutions and government agencies are working to support cities with datasets and indicator methodologies for monitoring progress on the SDGs at local level. 

Those indicator sets and databases are helpful for cities to develop their own indicator frameworks at the local level, taking into account international standards and definitions. In terms of building the action plan, these indicators can be used to develop results indicators for the locally adapted SDG targets.

Some examples include:

• The RFSC online tool (see also: Analysing the Starting Point). The tool includes a rich library with indicators used by cities, which have been selected over the course of the development of the tool, and subsequently matched to the SDGs.  
• UN-Habitat’s Urban Monitoring Framework, which provides a comprehensive framework for monitoring SDGs and the New Urban Agenda.   
• The European Cities SDG Index by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network.  
• Two handbooks developed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre that include indicators relevant to cities for all the SDGs, to guide the production of Voluntary Local Reviews (see further below). 

The OECD programme on a Territorial Approach to the SDGs has developed an online tool called “Measuring the distance to the SDGs in regions and cities”. This tool provides more than 100 indicators relevant for SDGs available at the scale of regions or cities (over 250 000 inhabitants).

Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs)
 

Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs), as mentioned above, are not formally part of the UN reporting mechanism but started as a “bottom-up” innovation by cities soon after the 2030 Agenda was adopted (e.g. some leading ones were New York, Helsinki, Bristol and Espoo). VLRs provide a means both to showcase progress on the SDGs internationally and can be a tool to mobilise support and engagement around the SDGs at local level.

There is no standard format or approach to VLRs. As a practice growing over time, VLRs have come to represent more than a statistical exercise, but is rather a way to enhance local policies for sustainable development and their implementation. In Espoo (Finland), for example, the VLR was a starting point for engaging local stakeholders and raise awareness of the 2030 Agenda. Similarly, in Bristol (UK), the VLR helped to develop its One City Approach to their strategy for sustainable development. 

Globally, around 125 VLRs have been produced so far. It is an approximate number since monitoring not as systematic as at the national level. 35% of the VLRs are from Europe.

JRC Handbooks on VLRs in Europe
 

The European Handbooks for SDG Voluntary Local Reviews produced by JRC provide policy makers, urban practitioners and experts with a consolidated method and examples of indicators that European local and regional governments can use to monitor the achievement of the SDGs. 

During the URBACT pilot network Global Goals for Cities, the JRC contributed with capacity building for the network participants on the topic of VLRs and data available for cities for monitoring SDGs.

Performance in policy-making guide

Localising the SDG targets

• Global Goals for Cities Learning Kit Module 5: Monitoring and Reporting results on the SDGs 
• UN Library of published Voluntary Local Reviews