Between February 3 and 4, 2020, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) is organizing a regional workshop for Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries that will present their National Voluntary Reviews to the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. Cepei’s Governance Coordinator, Javier Surasky, was invited to present what Second Generation Reports are.
About the workshop
The workshop, to be held at ECLAC headquarters in Santiago de Chile, is a preparatory activity for the fourth meeting of the Forum of the countries of Latin American and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development (to be held in March 28-31 in Havana, Cuba).
The 11 countries of the region that will present their National Voluntary Reviews (VNRss) in 2020 -Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Panama, Peru, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago- as well as other countries that have already done their VNRs more than once in previous years, will participate.
About the workshop
The workshop seeks to strengthen countries’ capacities to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including critical aspects such as identifying gaps and priorities, identifying data and statistics for monitoring the SDGs, as well as key elements of the implementation strategies such as planning, budgeting and financing.
It will also address lessons learned from the first cycle of VNR submissions between 2016 and 20192, and a reflection on how to encourage a “second generation of VNRs” as an acceleration tool for SDG compliance.
Second Generation VNRs
A Second Generation VNR is a National Voluntary Review that works from a dynamic perspective, presenting the continuity and evolution of progress in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda at the national level, taking the first VNR presented by the country as a reference.
The Governance Coordinator of Cepei, Javier Surasky, made a presentation in which he explained what is a second generation report:
“A second generation VNR reports in a cycle perspective, prioritizing film (dynamic process) over photography (static moment)”.
“A Second Generation VNR should include identification of areas where external support is needed to implement the 2030 Agenda at the national level.
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A second review that only reports on the current situation is not the same as a first review which reports on processes and cycles, as a second generation report does.
With the aim of contributing to the discussions on best practices for the preparation of second and third Voluntary National Reviews, Cepei’s work presents 9 recommendations for their preparation to ensure that they can be considered second generation.
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The ECLAC
ECLAC is one of the five regional commissions of the United Nations and is based in Santiago de Chile. It was founded to contribute to the economic development of Latin America, to coordinate actions aimed at promoting it and to strengthen the economic relations of countries among themselves and with other nations of the world. Later, its work was extended to the countries of the Caribbean and the objective of promoting social development was incorporated.