CSO led VOLUNTARY NATIONAL REVIEW - report writing workshop
About the Voluntary National Reviews (VNR’s)
Voluntary national reviews (VNRs) are part of the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As stated in paragraph 84 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, regular reviews in the High-level Political Forum(HLPF) on Sustainable Development are to be voluntary, state-led, undertaken by both developed and developing countries, and provide a platform for partnerships, including through the participation of major groups and other relevant stakeholders. VNRs make possible the sharing of experiences, including successes, challenges and lessons learned, with a view to accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. They are most meaningful when they involve an inclusive, participatory, transparent and thorough review process at the national and sub-national levels, when they are evidence-based, produce tangible lessons and solutions, and are followed by concrete action and collaboration that drives SDG implementation.
Participants at the VNR content development workshop - Lukenya Getaway Resort from 19th to 20th February, 2020
Kenya’s VNR Reporting
The Government of Kenya (GoK) presented its first VNR Report to the HLPF in 2017. The SDGs Kenya Forum helped in facilitating the inclusion of the voice of the CSOs into this report to ensure a comprehensive and complimentary account of the implementation of the SDGs from the policy level to the grassroots levels.
The desire is to have contributions from both state and non-state actors plugging into the VNR process. This is in the spirit of the multi-stakeholder engagement framework in Kenya, a complementary CSO-led VNR report is meant to capture critical non-state perspectives on the progress aiming to inform the right interventions at multiple levels – including the guiding of policy. Civil society reporting on national progress towards the SDGs is a crucial way of promoting accountability and provides an important complement to official accounts of progress.
Also, this year marks 5 years since Governments around the World committed to implement the 2030 Agenda. Kenya will be reporting the 2nd VNR at the upcoming High Level Political Forum (HLPF) set to take place in New York in June, 2020.
The writing workshop
The first writing workshop was held at Lukenya Getaway Resort, on 19th to 20th February, 2020. A total of 56 participants representing 52 organizations were represented.
As per the diagram below, the largest number of organizations represented reported on Goal 5. Additionally, most CSOs operate at national and regional levels.
How CSOs responded per Goal Group
The first presentation provided an overview of the process, outcome and challenges of developing the 2019 biannual CSO VNR Report. Twelve ( 1,2,3,4,5,6,10, 12, 13, 15 16 and 17) of the 17 Goals were reported. But it was noted that this report focused mainly on the SDGs target level. Notable strengths during the 2019 process included:
CSOs were strong in providing evidence on their contribution towards respective goal’s implementation;
Narratives were measurable/quantitative;
Almost all submissions were by target which was a big improvement from the 2017 process.
This set the tone for content development for the current VNR report. This year, the aim is to report against SDG indicators. Also, supplementary evidence on the impact of the implementation of the SDGs was to be included in the reporting.
Group Discussions on Goal 7, Goal 13 and Goal 14 at the VNR content development workshop
Writing process at the workshop catered for the following 3 steps.
- Step one: CSOs were grouped in line with the anchor goal they supported. This was to provide a platform to brainstorm ideas and best practices aligning to their anchor goals. It also provided a chance to share experiences on the 2017 VNR reporting process.
- Step two: Filling in of the 2019 VNR questionnaire. In order to easily capture and consolidate the data and evidence the CSOs had come with for the write shop, an online survey had been developed
- Step three: Review of the 2019 CSO VNR Submissions, upon submission of the VNR questionnaire, a team would extract and consolidate the information provided by various CSOs against the particular goal.
Why this matters
The voluntary national reviews (VNRs) not only facilitate the sharing of experiences, including successes, challenges and lessons, but they do this with an aim to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
This year, the report aims to do a first by attempting to incorporate all the 17 Goals, (unlike in the first CSO led report where only 7 goals were reported on), by addressing results from initiatives that have been rolled out, challenges and how to overcome them, good practices, and road map on how to meet the targets which remain unmet.
What remains
In case you desire to make a contribution but have not yet done this, the process of producing Kenya's VNR 2020 is still underway. All CSOs are invited to contribute to the report by sharing their work on whichever goal they are working own by following this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/csovnr2020
If your work contributes to more than one goal, you will be required to fill out one form for each Goal. We have circulated the above link for data submission; and the deadline to submit information is at midnight on 7th of March, 2020. This will give ample time to the drafting team to collate responses and compile the first draft and share it out for validation.
Because the timeline is tight, the sooner you submit the better. All contributors will be acknowledged. In case one needs more information about this reporting, you can contact info@sdgkenyaforum.org. Please take the time to tell Kenya and the world of your contribution to the 2030 Agenda.
The SDG Kenya Forum will consolidate the full report and share it out with the CSOs to validate the information provided. Following the validation of the report, the SDGs Kenya Forum would submit the report to the GoK for incorporation to the Kenya VNR reports that will be presented at the HLPF.
.