A Voluntary People’s Review to provide an realistic situation of the SDGs implementation status in Sri Lanka was released and presented to the Government of Sri Lanka, all stakeholders as well as the United Nations High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in July 2018.
On the 15th of September 2015, Sri Lanka became a signatory to the global agreement on ‘Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’. This agreement requires each of the signatory countries to assess their national realities regarding the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), when presenting the Voluntary National Review (VNR). The VNR will be presented in July 2018 at the UN High-Level Political Forum.
The need for a Voluntary People’s Review in Sri Lanka was due to the lack in inclusive intent and a clear rationale within the Voluntary National Review (VNR) process in Sri Lanka. Moreover, to continue the flagship initiative themed ‘A Sustainable Nation - An Inclusive Transformation’, the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Wildlife (MSDW) initiated the ‘National Sustainable Development Engagement Platform’ in early 2016. However, it was only successful for a year during which stakeholders were engaged in the ‘National SDG Action Plan (2017-2020)’ and ‘Provincial Sustainability Plans’ before it was abandoned by the MSDW officials. Since the stakeholder engagement platform was absent during the VNR process which was led by the government, it has received criticism regarding the absence of providing an honest situation for the current status of SDG implementation in Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lanka Stakeholder Sustainable Development Goals Platform (SLS SDG Platform) that was established in March 2018, initiated the Voluntary People’s Review (VPR). Janathakshan played a leading role in this process in collaboration with civil society organizations and private sectors.
The VPR process was created to provide a realistic situation of the SDGs implementation status in Sri Lanka with the input of experts from both governmental and non-governmental sectors. The SLS SDG Platform was created by the collaboration of Civil Society Organisations, private sector, academia, professional associations, trade unions and etc. The main aim of this review is to facilitate an inclusive transformation towards sustainable development in Sri Lanka. The first event addressing the VPR was held on the 26th of April 2018 at the Nagarodaya Centre and it was organised by the Centre for Environmental Justice.
The Process
Figure 1 - The process undertaken to formulate the Voluntary People’s Review.
On the 09 of April 2018, Janathakshan held the SDG stakeholder platform meeting where all the stakeholders who could contribute to the VPR were invited. This meeting identified and discussed the process that would be undertaken to complete the 17 SDG reviews. All the stakeholders present were appointed with the SDGs that are most relevant to their field, Uchita De Zoysa , the SLS SDG Platform initiator, provided a format for each SDG in order to achieve a successful review. This format was created for each of the goals and it included the indicators that define the goals. These indicators were assessed under their baseline values, proposed baseline values and a rationale to the indicator and a pre defined colour code to represent the current status of that respective indicator in Sri Lanka.
From the 18th of June, a series of meetings were held in the conference room at the Janathakshan Head Office, where stakeholders continued their research and reviewing of the SDG goals under the guidance of Uchita De Zoysa. The first drafts of the SDG reviews were presented at the SLS SDG Platform workshop which was held at World Vision Head Quarters. These drafts were reviewed again by experts who were invited for the workshop, which led to comprehensive final drafts for each of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The final report consisted of 5 chapters, which incorporated the SDG reviews accordingly. Chapter 1 presents a report card on the implementation of the SDGs. Chapter 2 addressed an assessment on the policy and enabling environment for the implementation of SDGs in Sri Lanka. Chapter 3 is regarding a commentary on the transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies in Sri Lanka. Chapter 4 addresses an independent monitoring, evaluation and reporting mechanism on the 17 SDGs in Sri Lanka. Chapter 5 is a summary of people’s voices on leaving no one behind. These chapters provided an overall review on the status of implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while keeping with inclusive transformation objectives that lead towards sustainable development.
By: Avishka Sendanayake
