Sustainable Development Goals Helpdesk

Newly Revised Guidance Note Available Now on FAO and the 2030 Agenda Follow-Up and Review

Featuring country examples and extracts from global voluntary national review (VNR) reports, this guidance note details the VNR process and elaborates on the importance of leveraging agrifood systems transformations as a key accelerator for the Sustainable Development

11/01/2024

The Office of Sustainable Development Goals (OSG) is pleased to share the 2nd edition of FAO and the 2030 Agenda follow-up and review: Guidance note for Regional and Country Offices.

Featuring country examples and extracts from global voluntary national review (VNR) reports, this guidance note details the VNR process and elaborates on the importance of leveraging agrifood systems transformations as a key accelerator for the Sustainable Development Goals.

By pinpointing FAO Regional and Country Offices’ role in the VNR process, the guidance note aims to assist your support to Member Nations and provide a framework to help national authorities and other partners with VNR preparation.

 

What do Members typically need support with?

  • Increasing data and statistical capacity.
  • Effective stakeholder engagement and utilizing consultations for collecting qualitative and quantitative data.
  • Private sector engagement.
  • Producing, incorporating and showcasing data on Leaving No One Behind.
  • Mainstreaming SDGs into national plans and budgets.
  • SDG localization.

 

Why should FAO proactively engage in VNR processes at regional, sub-regional and country levels?

The VNR process extends the possibility to recognize clearly:

  • The role of agrifood systems transformations as a key accelerator for all SDGs;
  • The importance of utilizing available data and statistics to assess progress and promote the data collection of food and agriculture statistics;
  • The importance of policy coherence in agrifood systems and inclusive policy-making;
  • The role of wider inclusion of the FAO target groups (i.e. farmers, youth, women) in addressing the leave no one behind commitment;
  • Partnerships with FAO and its stakeholders are an important element of implementing the 2030 Agenda;
  • The role of governance, technology, science, and innovation as key drivers of agrifood systems transformation and achieving the SDGs.

 

Below is a timeline of the key stages in 2024 for preparing and submitting the voluntary national reviews from the newly revised guidance note.

 

 

Finally, to support a tailored approach and thinking about interlinkages between the SDGs that are under review in 2024 (SDG 1, SDG 2, SDG 13, SDG 16 and SDG 17), there is also a new dedicated tool to promote integrated thinking on these SDGs when analyzing country progress towards 2030.

OSG stands ready to support Regional and Country Offices in their work on the 2030 Agenda follow-up and review and welcomes expressions of interest for further collaboration.