An SDG Spotlight report can increase awareness of the 17 SDGs in the Netherlands and improve impact across all themes.

We have been working on implementing the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (17 SDGs) for 6 years now. Many people and organizations are familiar with the goals and actively working towards them. However, in the Netherlands, this international Agenda 2030 has not yet found a convincing and central place. We aim to change that and need your input. We want to inspire an even broader group of organizations and individuals to turn this agenda into a real action plan.

In various countries, in addition to the official national reporting, an alternative SDG report called an SDG-spotlight report, is prepared by civil society and active citizens. Every year, a joint European and global SDG Spotlight report is also produced. These reports assess from a societal perspective whether sufficient impact is being achieved on the global SDG agenda. Recommendations are made based on this analysis. Such collaboration does not exist in the Netherlands yet, and we would like to explore this initiative. The Global Goals Accelerator is coordinating the first pilot project and is collaborating with Earth Charter, Worldconnectors, and potentially other partners. The Global Goals Accelerator is a coalition of professionals and organizations, each motivated in their own way to contribute to the realization of the 17 SDGs.

Why an SDG Spotlight Report for the Netherlands?

The national government, along with local authorities, businesses, civil society organizations, knowledge institutions, and youth organizations, releases an annual report to the Dutch Parliament on the progress made towards the goals in the Netherlands, with a focus on the efforts made. The report is titled “Nederland ontwikkelt Duurzaam” (Netherlands Develops Sustainably). The Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) conducts an annual trend measurement of the progress on agreed-upon indicators. With this reporting, the commitment to annual accountability is fulfilled. However, in such a report, a selection of relevant developments must inevitably be made. The process of this selection is crucial. What is mentioned, what is not, and why? And most importantly, what is done afterward?

Towards a Greater Role for the Netherlands Together

The global SDG Spotlight report is highly critical and calls on the international community to support the 2030 agenda with more vigor everywhere. We firmly believe that the Netherlands can and should play a more significant role, both domestically and internationally, in achieving these goals. With an SDG Spotlight report, we aim to stimulate more ambitious and coherent actions on the SDGs, bringing us closer to achieving the agenda in the Netherlands and beyond. We provide an overview of the current situation and highlight the challenges in the Dutch efforts towards the SDGs. We also include constructive recommendations, primarily focused on the role of the Dutch government. For the first SDG Spotlight report in 2020, we delved into SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities and SDG 15: Life on Land. The report, titled “Beyond Voluntariness,” can be read hier.

Global Goals Accelerator Spotlight Report Team

Ellen van Reesch, Alide Roerink (Earth Charter Netherlands), Veronique Swinkels (Worldconnectors)

The contact person for this working group is Veronique Swinkels: [email protected].