CSO contribution to each SDG in the VNR - Click on any to view more
The Third Progress Report by Kenyan civil society organizations is informed by how Kenyan civil society see their roles in the 2030 Agenda as implementors of sustainable development, the voices of the people who are likely to be left behind and the watchdogs of office holders.
Since 2017, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have been submitting progress reports to inform Kenya's Voluntary National Review (VNR). It should be noted that the 2018 CSO VNR Report was not written simply because in 2017, Kenya adopted a biannual VNR reporting cycle. Hence the next CSO report was the 2019 CSO biannual status report on the progress of SDG implementation and review in Kenya.
Please note the following:
- 1 The 2017 CSO VNR report was structured to report on progress made in the period ending 2016, and the 2019 CSO VNR report was a biannual report looking at progress undertaken over 2017/2018.
- 2 This 2020 CSO VNR report picks up from the 2019 Status report and incorporates the progress over 2019.
- 3 Importantly, all of the three reports referenced above mirror Government-led VNR processes, with leadership from the SOGs Kenya Forum and its members, and feeding into the government-led country VNR reports and processes since 2017.
This year, Kenya will be reporting at the High-Level Political Forum under the theme ‘Accelerated action and transformative pathways: Realising the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development’. To inform this, Kenyan CSOs shared their views and experiences in implementing the 2030 Agenda including successes, challenges, gaps, alignment to national policies, support needs, plans for 2020 and recommendations for accelerating the implementation of the SDGs. The report also dedicates a separate section on ‘leave no one behind’. Therefore, apart from informing Kenya’s VNR 2020, the report provides recommendations to inform policy design and to strengthen partnerships particularly with the government and donors.
Civil society is a crucial actor in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It has a key role to play in raising awareness and keeping the spotlight on these commitments. Civil society organisations are active in the planning, implementation and monitoring of the Agenda, and above all in holding leaders to account for the commitments they have made. In order to ensure effective delivery of the 2030 Agenda, governments committed to a follow up and review process that should be “robust, voluntary, effective, participatory, transparent, and integrated”; and that monitoring and accountability on progress would be done with data that is “high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts”.
The purpose of developing a People’s Scorecard and incorporating it into this popular version is to provide an opportunity for CSOs to systematically add context to the progress of the SDGs implementation in their countries. The aim is to:
- 1 Further improve on inclusivity of the national civil society process;
- 2 Implement the already established template for a People’s Scorecard on national delivery of the 2030 Agenda;
- 3 Discuss on matters arising from the Scorecard with a view to deliver on transformation
Figure: People's scorecard:
Overall CSO consensus on current implementation of SDGs in Kenya