Bhopal First Indian City to Track Progress on SDGs
Recently Bhopal became the first Indian city to monitor progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Agenda for action in Bhopal:
- Sustainable urban transformation has been started in Bhopal. This launch marks India’s first city-level Voluntary Local Review (VLR) of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- VLR will enable cities and regions to localize SDGs and report on their progress.
- The VLR will help identify challenges, opportunities and needs in moving forward towards these goals. Also, will provide a practical approach towards sustainable development.
- New York City was the first city to present its VLR at the United Nations High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in 2018.
- Under the localization of SDGs (LSDGs), strategies are defined at the local level. Also, at the local level, their
- is implemented and monitored. In this way it is possible to achieve the global, national and sub-national goals and sub-goals of sustainable development.
- Localization is concerned with how the Sustainable Development Goals can provide a framework for local development policy.
- At the same time, it also emphasizes how local and regional governments can help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals through a bottom-up approach.
Challenges in localization of SDGs –
- There is limited availability of finance, data and capabilities to conduct monitoring at the sub-national level.
- There is a lack of policy coherence and coordination between national and local efforts.
- There is limited awareness of the SDGs at the sub-national level.
UN Habitat: United Nations Human Settlements Program
- It was established in 1978. It is an outcome of the first United Nations Conference on Human Settlements and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat-I) held in Vancouver (Canada) in 1976.
- Its headquarter is located in Nairobi, Kenya.
- It is an agency of the United Nations for human settlement.
- The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has tasked it to promote socially and environmentally sustainable cities and towns to provide adequate habitat for all.
- Other Related Information: Till now, it has held three conferences: UN Habitat-I (1976) UN Habitat – II (1996) and UN Habitat – III (2016)
Source – Down to Earth
