Select committee: International Development Committee

UK progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) inquiry

Closed Opened 3 Dec 2018 Closed 12 Nov 2018

International Development Committee Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗

Inquiry scope (the committee's words)

The International Development Committee (IDC) identifies serious failings in the preparation and presentation of UK’s first Voluntary National Review of progress towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The UK has taken a long time to get around to producing a VNR (some countries have produced two since 2015) and so expectations were naturally that much higher, and the disappointment that much greater. The Government had 19 months between committing to a VNR and producing it. Despite this, the timeline was squeezed and most of the work – and virtually all of the engagement activity – was left to the last few months, preventing stakeholders from meaningfully engaging in, or influencing, the final report. Government response: UK's progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Voluntary National Review Report: UK's progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Voluntary National Review Letter, 9 January 2019, from the Minister of State for International Development, concerning the Voluntary National Review on the Sustainable Development Goals

Where it stands

The inquiry is closed, opened 3 December 2018.

The committee has published 1 report, most recently 12th Report - UK's progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Voluntary National Review on 16 July 2019.

The government's response

Published 20 September 2019.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government's response to the Committee's fourteen recommendations on the Voluntary National Review (VNR) is mixed, with each marked as Agree, Partially Agree or Disagree.

On a mechanism for stakeholder engagement on domestic SDG implementation, it "Partially Agree[s]" and says early scoping work is underway, involving DFID and the Cabinet Office, alongside a lessons learnt survey and a stakeholder roundtable.
It disagrees that a separate mechanism for the UK's global contribution to the SDGs is needed, stating that it does "not consider it necessary to also establish a new international stakeholder engagement mechanism".
On responsibility for the SDGs, it partially agrees, saying DFID "is best placed to retain oversight of the Goals" while the Cabinet Office leads a review of ministerial and official level structures.
It agrees on the Prime Minister attending the UN SDG Summit, saying "We expect the Prime Minister to attend UNGA including the SDG Summit". It disagrees that Parliament should take forward a peer review panel.

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error

Reports

12th Report - UK's progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Voluntary National Review16 July 2019

All reports

Evidence

5 oral evidence sessionsLatest 26 June 2019

All evidence

Recent activity

13th Special Report - UK’s progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Voluntary National Review: Government Response to the Committee’s Twelfth Report20 September 2019, Report published
12th Report - UK's progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Voluntary National Review16 July 2019, Report published
Oral evidence session26 June 2019, Oral evidence

Reports

1 report

12th Report - UK's progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Voluntary National Review

HC No.: HC 1732
Published: 16 Jul 2019
Items: 0
Government response: Government response published 20 September 2019. Read the government's response ↗

Oral evidence sessions

5 sessions

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Date	Session and witnesses	Source
26 Jun 2019	Oral evidence session No witnesses recorded	View ↗
11 Jun 2019	Oral evidence session No witnesses recorded	View ↗
14 May 2019	Oral evidence session No witnesses recorded	View ↗
19 Mar 2019	Oral evidence session No witnesses recorded	View ↗
12 Mar 2019	Oral evidence session No witnesses recorded	View ↗

Correspondence

2 letters

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Published	Direction	Letter
24 Apr 2019	Not recorded	Letter, 9 April 2019, from the Secretary of State, concerning the Voluntary National Review of the Sustainable Development Goals
2 Apr 2019	Not recorded	Letter, 2 April 2019, to the Secretary of State, concerning the UK Voluntary National Review on the Sustainable Development Goals