Bhopal, first city in India to track progress of SDGs

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BHOPAL, Madhya Pradesh: The city of Bhopal has become the first Indian city to adopt the localisation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). With the help of voluntary local reviews (VLR), the city will demonstrate the capacity of the local government and their commitments.

United Nations (UN) in a press release highlighted that the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chauhan has launched an Agenda for Action: Sustainable Urban Transformation in Bhopal on May 12.

The press release informed further that the VLR being adopted by the city is the collaborative efforts of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and 23 other local stakeholders. VLR will demonstrate the aspiration of the city for a sustainable and inclusive urban transformation.

It consists of both the quantitative and qualitative approaches for reviewing SDGs with the qualitative approach mapping around 56 development projects. New York became the first city that submitted its VLR to the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in 2018. 33 countries have made the 114 VLRs or similar documents available in the public domain.

Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, also known as the Agenda 2030, consists of 17 SDGs and 169 targets and has been adopted by all 193 members of the United Nations in 2015.

UN said that cities have a major role to play in the achievement of Agenda 2030, as 60 per cent of the 169 targets could not be achieved without their active participation.