This is to announce that a new UN resolution on “Strengthening Voluntary National Reviews through Country-led Evaluation” has been adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, on Wednesday, 26 April 2023.
This historic milestone for evaluation follows two years of deliberate advocacy efforts led by the Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the United Nations.
By the resolution, the General Assembly encourages all Member States to use evidence from evaluations of the Sustainable Development Goals implementation for decision-making and reporting on their progress towards achieving the 2030 Agenda.
Among other provisions, the Assembly requested United Nations agencies to provide support at Member States’ request regarding their efforts to undertake evaluations of the implementation of the Goals and to facilitate exchange of experiences and knowledge products from those evaluations.
It further encourages Member States to present regular Voluntary National Reviews with a country-led evaluation component as deemed relevant and useful at the country level in partnership with relevant stakeholders.
The resolution was adopted without a vote during the 69th plenary meeting of the seventy-seventh General Assembly.
It was co-sponsored by Azerbaijan, Belarus, Cambodia, Central Africa Republic, China, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Dominican Republic, The Gambia, Guyana, Jamaica, Lesotho, Malawi, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Philippines, Russian Federation, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Togo, and Zambia.
The adoption of the Resolution could be rewatched here.
Nigeria’s efforts were supported by a multi-stakeholder taskforce comprising