At the July 2022 meeting of the United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable  Development (HLPF), United Nations Member States and others conducted their annual review  of progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (the 2030 Agenda) including  the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While Member States have committed to build  an inclusive and effective path to achieve the 2030 Agenda in the context of the decade  of action and delivery for sustainable development, the 2022 HLPF served as an important  moment to take stock of the impacts of the efforts deployed at global and national levels to  foster a socio-economic recovery from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, as well as on  broader progress towards sustainable development.

The Forum is mandated to carry out “regular, inclusive, state-led” and “thematic” reviews  of 2030 Agenda implementation, with inputs from other intergovernmental bodies, regional  processes and Major Groups and Other Stakeholders. Every year, a number of countries  present Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs). The follow-up and review process aims to  promote accountability to citizens, support effective international cooperation and foster  exchange of best practice and mutual learning.2 To date (2016-2022), 187 countries have  presented Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs), 44 of which did so in 2022.3 Of these 44 VNRs, 11 were by countries conducting their first review, 28 were by countries carrying out their second  review, three were by countries carrying out their third review, and two were by countries  carrying out their fourth review.4 As this report goes to press in early 2023, 41 countries are  planning to present VNR reports at the HLPF in July 2023, among which only two will be  presenting a VNR report for the first time.

Although not presented as a formal component of the HLPF, civil society organizations  (CSOs) and coalitions from around the world also regularly produce independent reviews  and analysis on their respective governments’ implementation of the 2030 Agenda,  complementing official processes. The present report contains analyses of 21 VNR-related civil  society reports. When read in parallel with VNR reports, these “shadow” and “spotlight” reports  provide additional, and sometimes contradictory, information in relation to country-level  implementation. 

Despite the key nature of these parallel reports in contributing to a ‘Whole of Society’  approach, they are rarely addressed by the VNRs. When VNRs do address them, they tend  to do so in partial or incomplete ways. On the other hand, the civil society reports provide a  channel to voice collective views about the configuration of civic freedoms and participation. 

These reports also provide an overview of many of the challenges faced by civil society,  different perspectives on government policy and recommendations for improvement, as well  as detailed examples of civil society actions towards 2030 Agenda implementation. Therefore,  the perspectives and information presented by non-state stakeholders (e.g NGOs, private  sector, academia, youth, children, etc.) can provide a broad complementary view on the  extent to which (and how effectively) national SDG implementation is being carried out in a  participatory way within the broader political system.