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Involving local administrations in the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda
Objective
Enhance the role of local administrations in development planning and in the follow-up on the 2030 Agenda implementation.
Overview
The conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic has exacerbated the development gap among governorates and led to varying sustainable development priorities. National reporting alone is no longer sufficient; it has become important to monitor the SDGs and their indicators at the local level to assess needs and implement appropriate interventions. In this context, the Syrian Government has taken a number of measures to strengthen the role of local governments in planning, implementation and follow-up processes.
Following the launch of the first VNR in 2020, the Syrian Government worked on adjusting institutional arrangements to involve non-central government actors in VNR preparation. It expanded the membership of the National Committee for Sustainable Development, which was previously limited to government agencies, to include representatives of civil society and the private sector. Committees were formed to oversee the preparation of sustainable development reports at the level of Syrian Governorates, headed by governors. Additionally, working groups for sustainable development were established at the local level, consisting of local administration bodies, representatives from the private sector, civil society and academia.
The Syrian Government prepared sustainable development reports for all governorates, which included a general local development framework and an analysis of the most important available indicators. The reports enabled the identification of Goals and targets that are of priority to the governorates, and concluded with a set of requirements to accelerate the pace of local development and achieve some of the SDGs locally by 2030.
The Government also adopted a framework for distributing executive roles in SDG implementation, ensuring that responsibilities and powers are not confined to the central government. Local administrations were tasked with operationalizing the national development plan at a decentralized level, and formulating local development plans at the governorate level. Additionally, they were given responsibilities related to investment, service delivery and land management.
The 2024 VNR included a plan of activities such as spreading sustainable development culture among local communities, and building local capacities in integrating the SDGs into local development plans.