Beyond VNRs: Global Workshop on Civil Society “Parallel Reports” for SDG16

Organized by the Transparency, Accountability & Participation (TAP) Network, Asia Development Alliance (ADA), Article 19 and Transparency International

When: Friday, 14 July 2017; 9:30 AM – 2:00 PM

Where: UN Church Center, Second Floor

Breakfast, coffee and lunch will be served for workshop participants

Background

To meet the ambition of the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda, it is essential that these ambitious commitments are matched by equally comprehensive and inclusive data collection, monitoring and reporting frameworks. Consequently, governments acknowledged in the 2030 Agenda that SDG follow-up and review systems will “support accountability to our citizens” and that these systems will be “open, inclusive, participatory and transparent for all people and will support the reporting by all relevant stakeholders.” While the Voluntary National Review (VNR) process will be the primary channel for reporting on country-level progress on the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda, civil society “parallel reports” will be vital to ensuring an independent, robust and accurate assessment of progress within countries, and providing a direct means to promote this government accountability to its citizens. They are also integral to the overall credibility of the 2030 Agenda - by showing clear results and timely updates on progress, and helping to accelerate implementation and support partnerships, including with governments, civil society, the private sector and all stakeholders, coming together to achieve the SDGs. Additionally, Paragraph 89 of the 2030 Agenda calls upon the Major Groups and other relevant stakeholders to report on their contribution to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, providing another potential entry-point for these parallel reports.

With much discussion and questions regarding how these civil society “parallel reports” could take shape, this workshop will provide a timely opportunity to convene key civil society stakeholders working around SDG16 and the VNR processes at all levels, to discuss approaches to civil society reporting on SDG16. This workshop will showcase existing reporting efforts from across civil society to provide an opportunity to facilitate peer-learning, and will provide an opportunity for sharing of best practices regarding methodologies, approach, guidelines and templates for these parallel reports. Breakout groups will allow for in-depth discussions on these various aspects of parallel reporting, which will be facilitated by experts on SDG monitoring and accountability. The results of these discussions will feed into ongoing work of the TAP Network and its partners in developing further guidance for civil society on SDG parallel reporting, and will serve as inputs for an SDG Accountability Handbook currently in production by the TAP Network.

This workshop has the following objectives:

1.To provide a platform for sharing of best practices around current SDG civil society parallel reporting efforts in different contexts

2.To further discussions around methodologies, approach, guidelines and templates for SDG civil society parallel reporting, and to review the TAP Network Paper on SDG16 “Parallel Reporting”

3.To help identify knowledge and capacity gaps and needs within civil society on SDG parallel reporting, with an aim to explore further work and partnerships to address these needs