With 65 per cent of SDG targets estimated to be linked to the work of local and regional governments, effective localization is a pre-condition for achieving SDGs. In recent years, the role of local governments has gained prominence and visibility at the international level, recognized by Member States in General Assembly resolutions and HLPF Political Declarations, and by the Secretary-General in his reports “Our Common Agenda” and “Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals: Towards a Rescue Plan for People and Planet 2023”. In the face of multiple global crises that have slowed, and in some cases, reversed progress on SDG implementation, localization has become more important than ever and local governments from all regions have been “rising to the occasion,” increasingly seizing upon the 2030 Agenda and working to make it a reality in their local contexts. One of the ways that local governments have been doing this is through the process of preparing sub-national reviews of their SDG implementation (voluntary local reviews) to reinforce vertical and horizontal policy coherence and complement voluntary national reviews (VNRs). At the same time, local and regional governments particularly, as detailed below, in the Africa region, face significant challenges in delivering on the 2030 Agenda. The present project will support both national and local governments in selected African countries to accelerate inclusive implementation of the 2030 Agenda through strengthening local and national government capacities for localization of the SDGs. It will do so by building on the successful implementation of the Italian funded project on Improved local and national government capacities for localizing SDGs progress through Voluntary Local Reviews (2022-2024), providing continued support for review and reporting on SDG implementation and further supporting national and local governments to address financing challenges for SDG delivery by local governments and to strengthen planning for SDG achievement.

The achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs largely depends on inclusive national and local actions. The primary objective of the present proposal is to support the acceleration and scaling up of SDGs implementation and localization through the preparations of Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs) of SDG implementation in the target countries and regions and, through this process, to build the capacities of government officials at the national and subregional levels for effective SDGs implementation at all levels, including the subnational level and reviewing and monitoring of progress. The proposed activities will form a comprehensive support structure for the development of the VLRs and their linkages to Voluntary National Reviews in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and local governments in the cross-border Chaco region of Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay, in collaboration with the participating local governments and the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Offices and United Nations country teams. The activities respond to a direct request received, respectively, from  the Secretary of the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare of Zimbabwe,submitted through the United Nations Resident Coordinator Office (dated 21 August 2021), requesting support for the development of VLRs and from the United Nations Resident Coordinator for Paraguay (dated 28 April 2021), requesting support for the development of a Voluntary Local Review in El Chaco Region (Western region) and potentially in other interested entities. The Offices of the Resident Coordinator in Argentina and Bolivia have also expressed their interest in participating in the present project, as has Argentina’s Commission for Sustainable Development Goals. These activities will also be implemented in line with the priorities identified in the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks for each country.

The 2020-2022 World Social Protection Report noted that globally, only 46.9% of the population was effectively covered by at least one social protection benefit, and in Africa and Asia and the Pacific, this is even lower, at 17.4% and 44.1%, respectively. Evidence suggests that countries with better social protection policies and programmes are better at curbing the effects of the Triple Crisis, with overall positive effects on health, education, labour market outcomes, income inequality, and social cohesion. Hence, it is imperative to build countries’ capacity to build robust, sustainable, gender-sensitive and crisis-responsive social protection policies and programmes.   This project will support six selected countries in the regions of Africa and Asia and the Pacific to strengthen their social protection systems and programmes’ capacities to identify, reach out and expand to those left behind and build robust, sustainable, inclusive and crisis responsive policies and programmes by training policy makers on the use of already existing digital platforms that can provide useful guidance on monitoring SDG progress and acceleration by identifying those groups left furthest behind, understanding the factors and circumstances behind the Triple Crisis that affects them and help building the national capacities to accelerate participant countries development plans. Furthermore, the project will help developing local capacities to use the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) as an analytical tool to identify the most vulnerable people, show aspects in which they are deprived and, consequently, target resources and design policies more effectively. This work is expected to enhance capacities of target countries to develop integrated social protection policies and strategies that enhance the delivery of social protection services and increase resilience to future crises in the six selected countries in the regions of Africa and Asia and the Pacific, which would be demonstrated by the enhanced capacity of selected countries to design and implement public policies and programmes towards universal social protection, with a focus on identifying and incorporating into the policies and programmes the most affected people and people in vulnerable situations who are disproportionately impacted by the Triple Crisis