the link with sub-national authorities. In Honduras, representatives from municipalities do participate in two committees on SDG implementation that were created ad hoc: a high-level political one and a more technical-administrative body. In federal countries, ministries or other high-level representatives from states and provinces are often included in inter-state and inter-departmental committees or councils. In Belgium, ministries from the different regions and communities are represented in the Inter-Departmental Commission for Sustainable Development (ICSD). In Germany, eleven federal ministries, several Länder and numerous municipalities and counties – as representatives of the German municipal umbrella organizations, DST, DSTGB and DLT – are active participants in the Inter-Ministerial Working Group on Sustainable Urban Development (IMA-Stadt). The Länder, moreover, are regularly consulted by the federal government on sustainability policies. Other federal and quasi-federal countries do at least commit to integrate or consult representatives of federated units. In Ethiopia, regional governments have been consulted as part of the works of the National Planning Commission, which is in charge of the implementation of the Growth and Transformation Plan II. In Italy, the national government is expected to consult the State-Regions Conference when drafting the national sustainable development strategy. In India, the chief ministers from each state are involved in the NITI Aayog, the national think-tank in charge of the followup of the SDGs at the federal level. In Nigeria, in collaboration with the federal government, states have appointed an ‘SDG focal person’, who coordinates the implementation in line with the directives of the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on the SDGs (OSSAP-SDGs). This system helps improve inter-governmental relations across the three tiers of government.
“The lessons will form the foundation for the SDGs implementation if any development challenges are to be surmounted. More importantly, it has to include a renegotiation of the roles and relationships between national, sub national governments, between Government and Development Partners, members of legislative assemblies (national and county) and between state and non-state actors among others. Therefore, strong partnerships and collaboration amongst stakeholders is critical in the successful implementation of the SDGs”.
In most cases, however, local governments are integrated in those multi-stakeholder spaces that do have a consultative or advisory role in support of the implementation and follow-up of the SDGs. Many countries have enhanced or readapted existing mechanisms. ‘National committees’ for sustainable development already existed in a number of countries (e.g., Belarus, Czech ‘Means of Implementation’, Kenya’s VNR Republic, Estonia, Finland, or Montenegro),50 as well as other to the 2017 HLPF, page 48 types of ‘national councils’ (e.g., Kenya’s MDGs Coordination Department, now transformed into the SDG Coordination Department under the aegis of the Ministry for Devolution and Planning).51 In other cases, however, new institutional spaces were created, as it is the case with Japan’s SDGs Promotion Roundtable Meetings and Togo’s stakeholder commission for the National Development Plan.52 In many of these cases, the participation of LRGs is strong and wellestablished. Finland’s National Commission on Sustainable Development, chaired by the prime minister, includes two representatives from Finnish regions and two members of the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities (the Commission includes 84 members overall, representing a wide spectrum of societal actors, entities and stakeholders).
50 In Finland, the secretariat of the Council on Sustainable Development was transferred from the Ministry for the Environment to the office of the prime minister. Iran has refurbished the mandate and structure of its National Committee for Sustainable Development, turning it into an interministerial hub for horizontal policy coordination on the SDGs. 51 In Kenya, the Council of County Governors (CoG) contributed to the VNR consultation process through the Inter-Agency Technical Working Group. In November 2016, they created an SDG Liaison Office which work closely with the SDG coordination Department. 52 Eight countries in Latin America have created new national coordination mechanisms for monitoring and follow-up. Three more (Argentina, Guatemala and Honduras) have built upon pre-existing instruments. In two others, Peru and Uruguay, the process of renovation of their institutional structure is still in progress.
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