National associations (such as the SKL in Sweden or Denmark’s KL) are also developing strategic visions and programmes that build extensively on internal initiatives to guarantee awareness and engagement with the SDGs. Others are working to secure funding or embed the SDGs into their strategic outlook for the future (e.g., the UNGL in Costa Rica) or directly into their governance structure: already in 2016, in South Africa, SALGA aligned its internal working groups with each of the SDGs, and the national association of Benin (ANCB) created a special thematic commission on the goals. Many national networks and associations are supporting their members in the integration of the SDGs into local policies, sometimes in partnership with UN agencies (see Section 5.1.3 below). They have done so through training activities (e.g., in Colombia), guidelines and roadmaps (the example of Brazil is relevant, in this regard,10 while at the global level the GTF has disseminated a Roadmap for Localizing the SDGs),11 portals and other resources for knowledge exchange and the delivery of innovative solutions to implementation problems.12 Several associations, for example in Belgium and the Netherlands, have already developed pilot programmes likely to make a contribution to the localization of the SDGs (see Section 5.2 below). In several countries, on the other hand, the mobilization of local governments has been fostered through strategic alliances with other partners. In Germany, the Service Agency Communities in One World (SKEW) has carried out a number of working sessions of localization support (in North-Rhine Westphalia in February 2017), while LAG 21 NRW has been advising 15 German municipalities on local strategies for the implementation of the SDGs. In France, the Agenda 21 association is planning an SDG-themed ‘tour de France’ in partnership with the Association of French Regions from 2017 to 2019. In the Republic of Korea, the Local Sustainability Alliance of Korea (LSAK) has been providing its members – that include a number of different stakeholders – with a platform where also local governments can share knowledge and information and better integrate the SDGs into their policies and programmes. The initiative builds on the successful experience of the Local Councils for Sustainable Development (LCSD), a large network of local governments and civil society organizations established already in 1995. Among the broad spectrum of communication initiatives carried out by local governments to make the SDGs more accessible and comprehensible, many have focused on the involvement and engagement of society and citizens at large. These have included municipal newsletters, activities in schools, libraries and cultural centres, information evenings open to all citizens, even film festivals on the SDGs (as in Iran), or special dedicated publications (e.g., in Belgium and Sweden, see Box 3). UCLG and the Flemish organization of local governments, VVSG, for example, have created a series of animated movies on the SDGs. In Portugal, the Inter-Municipal Network for Cooperation and Development (RICD), with a membership of 20 municipalities, has organized a travelling exposition on the SDGs and their localization that has been roving the country since 2016. The above-mentioned SDG Voices programme in Belgium, for instance, counts on the support of a very diverse consortium of eight partners – ranging from a retail supermarket company to a municipality, to several big and small NGOs – delivering information on the SDGs and their implementation at the local level to their respective audiences.13
10 See also the Guía para Localización de ODS en Municipios Brasileños, available online at this address: http://www.cnm.org.br/cms/biblioteca/ ODS-Objetivos_de_Desenvolvimento_Sustentavel_nos_Municipios_Brasileiros.pdf, and the Guía para la Integración de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible en Municipios Brasileños, available online at this address: http://www.br.undp.org/content/dam/brazil/docs/ODS/guiaintegracao-ods-2017.pdf. 11 See: GTF, UNDP and UN-Habitat (2016) Roadmap for Localizing the SDGs, available online at this address: http://www.gtf2016.org/singlepost/2016/06/28/Roadmap-for-achieving-the-SDGs-at-local-level.
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12 See for instance the Localizing the SDGs platform (available online at this address: http://www.localizingthesdgs.org/), jointly developed by UNDP, UN-Habitat and the GTF. 13 See Belgium’s VNR for the 2017 HLPF, page 71.