Baltic 2030 – Macro-regional cooperation for sustainable prosperity in the Baltic Sea Region

The work of the EGSD is financially supported by the relevant line ministries of the CBSS Member States, and complemented by initiatives supported by EU funding mechanisms and key actors such as the Swedish Institute. The EGSD works in partnership with stakeholders in the Baltic Sea Region to advance action on the SDGs and the Baltic 2030 Action Plan. Relevant to highlight are two training programmes developed with the support of the Swedish Institute and the collaboration with relevant actors such as the OECD, SDSN and the think-tank Global Utmaning. The “Baltic Leadership Programme on 2030 Agenda” (2017-2018) engaged national-level actors to increase their capacity to mainstream and implement the 2030 Agenda in their work. The first module gathered national SDGs coordinators in peer learning on existing good practices for a strategic adoption of the 2030 Agenda at national level. The second module engaged the coordinators of the Policy Areas of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) in awareness raise of the SDGs and on how to align transnational cooperation to the 2030 Agenda. The third conclusive module engaged both stakeholder groups to reflect on how transnational action can best support national efforts in achieving the SDGs. After the programme, several EUSBSR Policy Areas started integrating the SDGs in their actions, anticipating the process of aligning the EUSBSR Action Plan to the SDGs in 2020. The “Baltic 2030 Capacity Building Programme – Localising SDGs” (2018-2019) aimed to increase capacity of local and regional authorities to strategically adopt the 2030 Agenda and mainstream SDGs across sectors. 50 participants met in two modules to peer learn good examples on SDG11 and SDG12, and to develop commitments and ways forward.