Dushanbe City launches the Voluntary Local Review process

The VLR was launched by Mr. Ashurboy Solehzoda, 1st Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Mr. Abdurahmon Abdurahmonzoda, Deputy Mayor of Dushanbe city and Mr. Lenni Montiel, UN Resident Coordinator a.i/UNDP Resident Representative. The organization of this event was supported by the UN Habitat within the framework of UN DA T14 project, UN Resident Coordinator Office in Tajikistan and UNDP. The round table was attended by the key official of Dushanbe Mayor’s Office, Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, other state institutions and UN entities.

During the launch event a global methodology of the VLR preparation, concept note and the action plan on preparation and presentation of the Dushanbe city VLR were presented and discussed.

The overall VLR process will be curated within the project by UN-Habitat, UNECE, UNDESA, and UCLG that aims to support cities of Dushanbe, Tbilisi, Nis, and Bishkek in their VLR development to global and regional advocacy, learning and capacity building while creating opportunities to strengthen the multilevel governance arrangements.  

Dushanbe will be the first city of Tajikistan to directly report to the United Nations on local progress toward the advancing Sustainable Development Goals. Modeled after the Voluntary National Review (VNR), which was presented by Tajikistan in 2023 at the HLPF, Dushanbe VLR will be officially presented in 2024 during the World Urban Forum to be held in Cairo, Egypt.

In 2015, UN Member States adopted “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” (known as Agenda 2030) resolution comprising of 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets as a plan of action for people, planet, and prosperity. The member states report their progress towards the achievement of the Goals through a Voluntary National Review (VNR) to UN’s High-Level Political Forum (HLPF).

Local and regional governments are at the forefront of implementing solutions to advance sustainable development. In their sustainability efforts, a growing number of local and regional governments are using Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs) as a valuable policy tool to structure the localization, planning, execution, and follow-up and review stages of SDG implementation.

Since 2018, almost 200 local and regional governments have conducted a VLR process. A Voluntary Local Review enables cities and regions to localize the Sustainable Development Goals and report their progress. In addition, the VLR enables the cities to strategically plan the sustainable urban development processes. Hence, VLRs have emerged as a powerful tool that forefronts local action.