Governments committed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to engage in systematic follow-up and review of the implementation of this Agenda. Since then a total of
187 Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) have been presented or announced, demonstrating their interest in and political ownership of the 2030 Agenda process. However, while some have reflected the participation of civil society, many more have not. Government self-assessments are not enough. Civil society organizations have a key role to play as independent watchdogs holding governments and international organizations accountable for their (positive or negative) contributions to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
The report consists of three parts: The first contains two overview articles, which highlight key
insights of the contributions to this report and messages from national ‘spotlight reports’. The
second includes five chapters on cross-cutting governance reform areas that demonstrate the
interlinkages between various SDGs and the need to ‘de-silo’ current policy approaches. The
third comprises 17 brief ‘Spotlights on the SDGs’, highlighting selected examples of good or bad
governance regarding specific goals.