The City of Liverpool has now formally committed to measuring city-level progress to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Joe Anderson, the Mayor of Liverpool, has now signed the declaration for a Voluntary Local Review (VLR) which is validated by UN Habitat. This emerging city-level adaption of the national obligatory Voluntary National Review (VNR) was created by the NYC Mayor’s Office for International Affairs to enable local and regional governments to share their progress to achieve the SDGs directly with the United Nations. Subnational governments through this process are able to share their knowledge and learn from international counterparts using the common language of the Global Goals. The UK Govt submitted its first VNR last summer, with 2030hub named as one of the national action highlights.

Since the launch of the VLR Declaration in 2019 at the UN General Assembly, over 208 local and regional governments have formally committed to this process, including major cities such as Los Angeles, Bristol, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Helsinki, Malmo, Stockholm and Yokohama.

The three commitments which make up the VLR are:

· To identify how existing strategies, programs, data, and targets align with the Sustainable Development Goals

· To provide at least one forum where stakeholders can come together to share experiences, lessons learned, and information gathered using the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals

· To submit a Voluntary Local Review to the United Nations during the United Nations High-Level Political Forum

2030hub has already laid the foundations for Liverpool's VLR with the recent SDG mapping snapshot and by convening a local working group to help bring the next steps of the process closer to the city's communities. The recently launched 2030pioneers youth SDG activism academy will also play a key role in providing a strong, informed youth component to the VLR engagement processs.

Liverpool is also aligned with New York as the only two cities formally by hosting Global Goals Week: Liverpool, kicking-off tomorrow (18th) until September 26th (#globalgoals and #Liverpool2030).