RIYADH — The Ministry of Economy and Planning (MEP) held the first of five workshops to prepare the second Voluntary National Review (VNR) of the Kingdom’s progress in implementing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in line with Saudi Vision 2030.

The VNR will be presented at the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in New York on July 17-19, 2023.

Bringing together more than 150 participants from government agencies, the private sector, and civil society organizations, the workshop reviewed the Kingdom’s first VNR, presented at the HLPF in 2018, organized under the theme “Transformation Towards Resilient and Sustainable Societies”.

The general framework of the first draft of the 2023 VNR report was also presented at the workshop where a VNR action plan including the next steps was agreed upon and a mechanism for case study preparation was introduced.

In July 2022, the Kingdom’s actions towards achieving five SDGs were reviewed. They touched on: quality education, gender equality, life below water, life on land, and forging partnerships for the goals. — SPA