The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has partnered with the Uganda SDG Secretariat to deliver a training on harnessing the Africa Regional Voluntary Local Review Guidelines across a host of localities in the country.
The training will help further the ‘localization’ of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063 of the African Union at the municipal level.
The Guidelines, developed by ECA, UN-Habitat and United Cities and Local Governments of Africa, serve localities in pursuing their own reviews of development policies and progress, and to chart a roadmap forward with the inputs of local, grassroots organizations. They include templates for data collection, stakeholder engagement, and policy harmonization. The guidelines were devised from on-the-ground experiences of Africa’s first five VLRs.
Pascal Byarugaba of the Uganda SDG Secretariat in the Office of the Prime Minister welcomed participants and emphasized the goal of strengthening inclusive participation on SDG localization, coordination and implementation at local levels in Uganda.
John Sloan of ECA, in presenting the guidelines, noted that “ensuring the relevance of regional and global frameworks for sustainable development is particularly crucial at this point, halfway towards the SDGs and ten years into the implementation of Agenda 2063”
Telman Maharramov of UN-Habitat shared that “the VLR is a process of transforming the SDGs into a reality at the local level, in line with communities’ priorities”.
The training will enable five localities in attendance to engage in their own SDG review processes. Uganda is among a number of countries including Benin, Gambia, Zimbabwe and others to harness the regional Guidelines to promote sustainable development.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
