Enhanced VLR Guidance Portal
Thu 19 Dec 2024, 5.36 amFor Sustainable, Green and Resilient Recovery & Transitions
Background
Enhanced VLR Guidance Portal
For Sustainable, Green and Resilient Recovery & Transitions
Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs)
VLRs have experienced a significant uptake over recent years, providing local governments and organizations a mechanism to report their progress and contribution to achieving the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While not a formal part of a country’s SDG progress reporting to the United Nations High-level Political Forum (HLPF) like Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) are, the VLR has emerged as an important channel for localizing the SDGs in the wake of recovery efforts from the COVID-19 pandemic and for informing local transition efforts toward green, resilient, and circular economies.
What is the Enhanced VLR Guidance Portal?
To assist officials of local governments & organizations who are in the process of considering or preparing a VLR, as well as United Nations staff and other experts who are assisting local governments & organizations in the preparation of a VLR, the United Nations system has created this suite of guidance documents and training materials designed to enhance the content and process of VLRs for supporting sustainable, green, and resilient recovery & transitions at the local level.
The implementing partners and authors of the Guidance Portal for Enhanced VLRs are the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), in cooperation with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN-ECE), and the World Organization of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG).
What Will and Won’t You Find in this Guidance Portal?
Through this Guidance Portal and its information modules you will learn how to enhance VLRs to support Sustainable, Green and Resilient Recovery & Transitions. These are not detailed guides on how to prepare a VLR; such guidance is already available to local governments and organizations. All guidance provided in the Portal is based on existing information gleaned from across the United Nations system and its partners.
What is a Voluntary Local Review (VLR)?
As a follow-up mechanism for the 2030 Agenda and SDGs, Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) are presented annually by member states to the United Nations High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development. Local and regional governments are increasingly engaging in their own reviews, called Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs) and Voluntary Subnational Reviews (VSRs), which have proven useful for cities and regions to foster SDG localization and demonstrate local governments’ capacity and commitments.
Source: UCLG (2021)
What are the key principles and leverage points for enhancing VLRs?
To support sustainable, green, and resilient recovery & transitions, VLRs should:
Generally,
create shared socio-economic and ecological value for local communities and vulnerable groups;
promote participatory and inclusive approaches and leaves no one behind;
be supported by evidence;
be forward-looking, flexible, and adaptive for green transitions as well as recovery and resilience from disasters and shocks; and
explore innovative financing sources and instruments.
Specifically,
set a course for local green recovery and transitions, aimed at long-term structural reforms and a transformative shifts towards sustainability, biodiversity protection, and climate neutrality; and
strengthen local resilience, aimed at climate change adaptation for resilient infrastructure and communities and mainstreaming disaster risk reduction for reducing hazards, exposure, and vulnerability to other, non-weather related hazards, including the use of nature-based solutions.
And practically,
link to the Voluntary National Review (VNR), aimed at creating links to the content of a VNR as well as the process for preparing a VNR;
be action-oriented for use by local government, aimed at using the VLR to help inform local government planning, budgeting, and reporting; and
support the means of implementation, aimed at using the VLR to assess and inform financing sources and instruments, technology development and transfer, local trade and markets, and measuring local SDG progress.
What information is provided in the Enhanced VLR Guidance Portal?
The Enhanced VLR Guidance Portal provides information through six modules as illustrated below. Module 1 is followed by two modules on green recovery & transition that provide guidance on how the process and content of a VLR can help support climate neutrality (module 2), the circular economy (module 3). The next two modules support resilient recovery & transition, including a focus on natural assets (module 4) and disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation (module 5) at the community level.
Finally, module 6 provides guidance on strengthening VLR’s effectiveness by linking closely to the content and process of the Voluntary National Review and to local government planning, budgeting, and reporting, as well as by informing the means of implementation, including exploring new financing sources and instruments, supporting technological development and transfer, improving local trade and market access, and supporting local SDG progress indicators and data.
Each module in the VLR Guidance Portal provides easy access to a variety of pragmatic information for officials of local governments who are preparing or considering a VLR and for experts across the UN and other organizations who are assisting local government officials with a VLR.
These materials include video recordings presenting core content, summary sheets, guidance notes, training slides, good practice examples, self-tests, and a separate guidance tab for facilitators and trainers.
What is the state of VLR implementation?
In 2018, New York City along with three cities in Japan (Kitakyushu, Shimokawa and Toyama) presented their Voluntary Local Review (VLR) of the SDGs at the United Nations High-level Political Forum. In its annual State of the VLR Review, IGES (2022) reported that by 2019 the number of VLRs prepared had grown by 25, with another 25 and 49 reports prepared in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Furthermore, the review had concluded that "local governments think about the SDGs at the local level, to advance horizontal integration within the local administration, to facilitate vertical cooperation between different levels of government, and to communicate with local stakeholders and the global community".
Given the growth in VLRs as a practical reporting mechanism for local governments and organizations, the VLR represents a key leverage point for accelerating progress toward the SDGs and the transition toward green, sustainable, and resilient recovery & transitions at the local level.
Proceed to Module 1
Module 1
MODULE 1: OVERVIEW OF THE ENHANCED VLR GUIDANCE PORTAL
This first information module gives you a sense of how the Guidance Portal is organized and why it is important to enhance your VLR to support green, sustainable and resilient recovery and transitions at the local level.
MODULE 1 SUMMARY SHEET
This slide deck presentation gives you a more detailed overview of the Enhanced VLR Guidance Portal: Training Slides
This document summarizes a few good practice examples of Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs) in the cities of Karatay Türkiye and Shkodra Serbia: Good Practice Examples
This short quiz helps you assess your understanding of this module's Guidance Note and Training Slides (results of quiz are for your information): Self Test
Proceed to Module 2
Module 2
MODULE 2: SUPPORTING CLIMATE NEUTRALITY THROUGH VLRS
This module introduces you to the concept of climate neutrality and all the ways that a Voluntary Local Review (VLR) can help inform a local government to help achieve greenhouse gas reductions across a community.
What is climate neutrality and why is it important?
Climate neutrality is a term used to describe no net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by a community, organization, or country. The Carbon Neutrality Toolkit of the UN Economic Commission for Europe emphasizes that current actions to reduce GHG emissions are falling short of delivering carbon neutrality and limiting global warming to under 2 degrees Celsius (UNECE, n.d.). We are reminded that “actions must start now to maximize the use of all low- and zero carbon technologies to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050”.
How can local governments help achieve climate neutrality at the local level?
At the local level, UN-Habitat, together with the European Commission and ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability, provide guidance on urban low emission development (LED) strategies focused on key areas including energy, transport, buildings, and local government services (i.e., operations, procurement, and land use) (ICLEI and UN-Habitat, 2016). These strategies are consistent with guides issued by national and subnational governments, local governments and authorities, and academic institutions for achieving carbon neutrality. Furthermore, experience by local governments show that there are four practical steps to achieving carbon neutrality: (1) measure carbon emissions; (2) reduce emissions where possible; (3) offset remaining emissions through carbon offset credits and/or local investment; and (4) report to the public on progress and actions taken.
A Voluntary Local Review (VLR) can play a crucial role in helping a community achieve climate neutrality by providing information that is relevant for local government planning & policy, budgeting & finance, and reporting & assessment. A VLR can also help mainstream and catalyze efforts within local government toward measuring local GHG emissions, reducing and offsetting carbon, and reporting on climate neutrality.
For detailed Module 2 Guidance Notes, please go here: Guidance Note
Summary Sheet:
This slide deck presentation will teach you about local leverage points for realizing greenhouse gas reductions through clean energy, sustainable transport, green buildings, and sustainable government services. You will also find examples of key performance indicators (KPIs) for tracking progress in these areas as well as interesting case studies of communities reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And lastly, you will learn several key strategies for how to use a VLR to inform local government planning & policy, budgeting & finance, and reporting & assessment, as well as how to inform your country's Voluntary National Review (VNR) and thereby, enhance the ability of your VLR to have local impact: Training Slides
This document summarizes a few good practice examples of communities reducing greenhouse gas emissions through clean energy, sustainable transport and connectivity, green buildings, and sustainable government services in the cities of Jyväskylä Finland, Betim Brazil, and Almada Portugal: Good Practice Examples
This short quiz helps you assess your understanding of this module's Guidance Note and Training Slides (results of quiz are for your information): Self Test
Proceed to Module 3
Module 3
Module 3: Supporting the Circular Economy through VLRs
This module introduces you to the circular economy and all the ways that a Voluntary Local Review (VLR) can help inform a local government to help achieve circularity at the local level.
What is the circular economy and why is it important?
The circular economy is “an economic system in which the value of products and raw materials contained in them are optimally preserved at the end of their use phase”. This includes the “recovery of raw materials, the extension of the use phase as well as the establishment of circular business models based on sharing and leasing”. The circular economy “offers an alternative to the current linear system in which products are basically produced, used and in the end, disposed”.
The United Nations Issue-based Coalition on Environment and Climate Change for Europe and Central Asia (UN IBC, 2023).
According to the 2023 Circularity Gap Report, the global economy is only 7.2% circular and is trending worse, owing to increased material extraction and use (Circle Economy, 2023). In absolute terms, this implies that of approximately 93 Billion Tones (Gt) of materials extracted from the earth and used as material inputs, only 7 Gt cycles back into the economy for reuse, with 35 Gt disappearing as waste and 15 Gt as emissions and the remainder locked into stocks of infrastructure, vehicles, machinery, and appliances (representing 38% of total material input).
How can local governments help achieve circularity at the local level?
Local governments can play a key role in “building thriving, liveable, resilient cities that are regenerative by design (MacArthur Foundation, 2019). Specifically, “city governments see, experience, and often manage the negative consequences of the current ‘take make- waste’ linear economy, be it through the public funds spent on solid waste management, the costs incurred from structural waste such as the cost of underutilized buildings, economic costs due to congestion, or health costs due to air and noise pollution” (MacArthur Foundation, 2019).
This module takes a closer look at four means and approaches that a community can consider participating in the circular economy:
The Circular Cities Action Framework
Advancing the 10Rs
Integrated Solid Waste Management
Sustainable Consumption and Production
For detailed Module 3 Guidance Notes, please go here: Guidance note
This slide deck presentation gives you a more detailed overview of the Circular Cities Action Framework, the 10 R's, and sustainable consumption and production at the local level. You will also learn several key strategies for how to use a VLR to inform local government planning & policy, budgeting & finance, and reporting & assessment, as well as how to inform your country's Voluntary National Review (VNR) and thereby, enhance the ability of your VLR to have local impact: Training Slides
This document summarizes a few good practice examples of how communities are participating in the circular economy in the cities of Kyiv Ukraine, Ljubljana Slovenia, Zagreb Croatia, Prague Czech Republic, and Maseru Lesotho: Good Practice Examples
This short quiz helps you assess your understanding of this module's Guidance Note and Training Slides (results of quiz are for your information): Self Test
Proceed to Module 4
Module 4
MODULE 4: SUPPORTING NATURAL ASSETS THROUGH VLRS
This module introduces you to the local benefits of natural assets and city services and all the ways that a Voluntary Local Review (VLR) can help inform local government to help manage these assets at the local level.
More and more local governments are recognizing local natural resources as municipal assets that deliver services for their community, much like built assets do. Local forests, lakes, rivers and streams, aquifers, wetlands, shorelines and embankments, and public green spaces, each deliver important ecosystem services that can achieve targeted infrastructure outcomes.
For example, lakes, rivers and aquifers are often a source of drinking water for communities. Local forests and wetlands often serve as filters that protect local water sources, as well as providing opportunities for local recreation and ecotourism. Shorelines and embankments can provide protection to communities from flooding and storm surges, while public green spaces help enhance both physical and mental wellbeing of local residents and even increase the value of nearby property.
Nature-based solutions and natural infrastructure are a form of engineered or modified natural asset that deliver a specific service or multiple co-benefits to a community. Engineered wetlands and ponds for stormwater management and flood protection are one example, as are green roofs and walls and urban forests for reducing heat stress in cities. Other solutions such as bioswales, rain gardens, and permeable pavements help to manage stormwater runoff. And rooftop rain collection and rain barrels help manage stormwater while also providing a source of water for building sanitation and irrigation systems.
How can local governments support natural assets at the local level?
Local governments can support natural assets through a range of actions. The first of which is to take inventory of the natural assets that provide services and benefits to their community, including the condition of the assets and the potential risks to them (i.e., development, climate change, etc.).
With knowledge of the stock and state of local natural assets, local governments can take steps to manage their assets to help ensure that they continue to deliver services and benefits to the community. Using nature-based solutions and natural infrastructure can help augment the services and benefits provided by existing natural assets, as well as deliver new targeted infrastructure outcomes including water and wastewater filtration, stormwater management, while at the same time reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide opportunities for storing carbon.
To help make the business case for investment and financing, new approaches for valuing the services provided by natural assets and nature-based solutions can be used alongside traditional benefit-cost analysis.
How can a VLR help?
A Voluntary Local Review (VLR) can help a community manage natural assets by providing information that is relevant for local government planning & policy, budgeting & finance, and reporting & assessment. A VLR can also help mainstream and catalyze efforts within local governments toward measuring the state of natural assets and assessing the risks that natural assets are exposed to.
A first practical step, as officials preparing a VLR or experts providing assistance, is for you to have a general understanding of all the potential leverage points that local governments can use to support natural assets and nature-based solutions. Such is the purpose of the sections that follow.
For detailed Module 4 Guidance Notes, please go here: Guidance Note
This slide deck presentation gives you a more detailed overview about how local governments are taking inventory of their natural assets, including assessing their condition and risks, and managing their assets in a manner similar to how they manage their build and engineered assets for delivering services to residents, including developing an asset management policy and plan, valuing their benefits for financial analysis, and using performance measures to track progress. You will also learn several key strategies for how to use a VLR to inform local government planning & policy, budgeting & finance, and reporting & assesment; as well as how to inform your country's Voluntary National Review and thereby, enhance the ability of your VLR to have local impact: Training Slides
This document summarizes a few good practice examples of how communities are managing natural assets and city services to deliver critical services to their citizens in the cities of Bishek Kyrgyzstan, Nur-Sultan Kyrgyzstan, Samtredia Georgia, and Yerevan Armenia: Good Practice Examples
This short quiz helps you assess your understanding of this module's Guidance Note and Training Slides (results of quiz are for your information): Self Test
Proceed to Module 5
Module 5
MODULE 5: SUPPORTING LOCAL RISK REDUCTION THROUGH VLRS
This module introduces you to the essentials of disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) and all the ways that a Voluntary Local Review (VLR) can help inform a local government how to help support DRR and CCA at the local level.
What are disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate adaptation (CCA) and why are they important?
Disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) are two parts of the same whole. The scope of DRR is comprehensive, covering a broad risk landscape of eight hazard clusters including meteorological and hydrologic (e.g. hurricanes); extra-terrestrial (e.g. meteors and solar flares); geohazards (e.g. earthquakes and volcanoes); environmental (e.g. biodiversity loss, salinization); chemical (via acute or long-term exposure); biological (e.g. zoonotic pathogens); technological (existing and new); and societal (e.g. financial shock, civil unrest).
Importantly, “cities concentrate millions of people into locations that can be highly vulnerable to disaster and the impacts of climate change” (UNDP and UNEP, 2021). Earthquakes and pandemics are two hazards that can pose significant risk to urban settings given high population densities and migrants arriving in cities from rural areas are particularly likely to end up in exposed and poorly serviced urban areas (UNDP and UNEP, 2021). Air pollution is another hazard that has a significant impact on cities and a major environmental cause of death worldwide. But risks such as these can be reduced through planning and design, In the context of air pollution, it is estimated that compliance with World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines would save more than 52,000 lives per year in Europe and reducing air pollution to the lowest levels could save 205,000 lives per year” (UNDP and UNEP, 2021).
Climate change adaptation (CCA) focuses on a subset of the broader multi-hazard risk landscape, dealing with the physical risks posed by changes in climate (i.e., flooding, wildfires, drought, extreme wind, etc.) as well as indirect transitional risks such as changes in public policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (i.e., carbon prices and taxes) or demographic changes owing to climate migration. The 2021 report on Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Cities published by UNDP and UNEP summarizes the dire situation:
Disasters in the form of storms, landslides and floods are growing challenges for city authorities, national governments and urban residents alike, damaging infrastructure and disrupting city life. Intense rainfall events put huge strain on urban storm wastewater systems, particularly where large parts of cities have been rendered impermeable by road and building construction. Rising sea levels are increasing the exposure of coastal cities to storm surges. By 2050, 90 percent of coastal cities will be hit by sea level rise. Meanwhile, droughts, which are expected to become more frequent as climate change progresses, put huge pressure on the water systems on which cities depend. In 2018 Cape Town narrowly escaped Day Zero, the day it would effectively run out of water, only as a result of its citizens enduring months of severe restrictions on the use of water. (UNDP and UNEP, 2021)
How can local governments help support DRR and CCA at the local level?
Local governments can help reduce disaster risks and adapt to climate change by implementing the four priorities of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR, 2015), including:
Priority 1: Understanding disaster risk;
Priority 2: Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risks;
Priority 3: Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience; and
Priority 4: Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and “build back better” in recover, rehabilitation, and reconstruction.
As well, in its training program module on the Fundamentals of Resilient Governance & Development, the United Cities and Local Government (UCLG) provides the following practical context for cities to support disaster risk reduction and resilience (UCLG, 2020):
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of taking efficient preventive and risk mitigating measures and building systemic resilience in our cities and territories.
An effective disaster risk reduction and resilience building strategy can provide significant effects and goes hand to hand with the wellbeing of communities, protection of the environment, local and regional economic development, and quality of life in cities and territories, indicating that the Sendai Framework has direct linkages to all the other Global Agendas (see figure below).
How can a VLR help?
A Voluntary Local Review (VLR) can help a community improve its DRR and CCA efforts by providing information that is relevant for local government planning & policy, budgeting & finance, and reporting & assessment. By doing so, a VLR can serve to help local governments mainstream DRR and CCA. More insight into how VLRs can help support DRR and CCA at the local level is provided at the end of this document.
A first practical step, as officials preparing a VLR or experts providing assistance, is for you to have a general understanding of all the potential leverage points that local governments can use to support DRR and CCA. The UNDRR’s Implementation Guide for Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Strategies provides practical guidance to local governments in implementing the four priorities of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR, 2018). This guidance is summarized herein.
For detailed Module 5 Guidance Notes, please go here : Guidance note
This slide deck presentation will teach you more about how local governments are assessing, managing, and monitoring multiple risks, including those exacerbated or caused by climate change. You will also learn how local governments are organizing their efforts for supporting DRR And CCA, including to prepare and respond to disasters and build back better after a disaster strikes. The training slides also expand on the content of Module 4 by elaborating how city services can enhance resilience to climate change impacts and other hazards in a cost-effective and efficient manner: Training Slides
This document summarizes a few good practice examples of how local governments are deucing risks to disasters and adapting to climate change at the local level in Canada, Brazil. India, New York, China and Makati Philippines: Good Practice Examples
This short quiz helps you assess your understanding of this module's Guidance Note and Training Slides (results of quiz are for your information): Self Test
Proceed to Module 6
Module 6
MODULE 6: STRENGTHENING VLRS FOR GREATER IMPACT
While there are many benefits inherent in the content and process of a VLR, preparing one is a resource and time-intensive exercise for a local government and its stakeholders. Therefore, reflecting on how to improve on the content and process of a VLR is important to help ensure that the impact of a VLR is commensurate with the level of effort needed to prepare one. Such is the focus of this module.
Why is it important to strengthen your VLR?
While there are many benefits inherent in the content and process of a VLR, preparing one is a difficult and long exercise, demanding a great amount of work, additional funding and human resources (IGES, 2022). Therefore, reflecting on how to improve on the content and process of a VLR is important to help ensure that the impact of a VLR is proportionate with the level of effort needed to prepare one.
In 2021, the UN Economic Commission for Europe issued its Guidelines for the Development of Voluntary Local Reviews in the ECE Region and recommended a suite of enhancements to address challenges and lessons learned shared by local governments (UNECE, 2023). Among the general principles suggested were for local and regional governments to ensure that VLRs:
Develop practical action-oriented planning documents well-integrated with local or regional government planning and financing systems. This would further support local and regional authorities in aligning their programmes and budgets with SDGs, “recovering better” from the pandemic and promoting urban resilience.
Include both long-term strategies and short-term plans for cities and regions to address key challenges in achieving SDGs and promoting urban resilience.
Are well-coordinated with national plans, including VNRs and concrete, actionable projects. It is important to improve coherence between VLRs and VNRs, including by establishing links at the national level and by cooperation with key national players.
Promote sustainable development at the local level through the creation of shared value. VLRs should reiterate the importance of value creation for local communities, especially the most vulnerable groups.
Promote a participatory approach. VLRs should be open, inclusive, participatory and transparent for everyone, and support reporting by all relevant stakeholders.
Ensure no one is left behind. The VLRs will be people-centred, gender-sensitive, respect human rights and have a particular focus on the poorest, most vulnerable and those most in need of assistance.
Remain evidence-based. The process of developing VLRs should focus on evidence-based approaches, including the use of quantifiable indicators which allow progress review in achieving SDGs and building urban resilience.
Remain flexible and adaptable in response to COVID-19 emergency recovery plans at regional and local levels. VLRs must consider COVID-19-related challenges when working towards achieving SDGs. They should also take into account actions and public policies to help cities towards realization of SDGs as well as key elements of sustainable development such as energy, mobility, construction, infrastructure and food.
Maintain a strong focus on mobilizing financial resources for the implementation of VLR recommendations, including the use of innovative financing instruments.
These principles and the UNECE VLR guide go along with other VLR guidance documents issued by other regions and organisations, including: UN DESA’s Global Guiding Elements for VLRs, UNESCAP’s Regional Guidelines on VLRs, UN-Habitat and UCLG VLR Guidelines Volume 1 and Volume II, the European Commission’s Handbook for SDG VLRs, the Africa VLR Guidelines issued by the UN Economic Commission for Africa together with UN-Habitat and UCLG Africa, the VLRs Toolbox from the Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy, the VLR Handbook for Canadian Communities prepared by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, among others.
How can local governments strengthen their VLRs for greater impact?
The Enhanced VLR Guidance Portal, for which this document is a part, was created so that local governments who are preparing a VLR can enhance the process and content to support local efforts toward sustainable, green, and resilient recovery & transitions in their communities. While the other modules in the Portal have focused on the sustainable, green, and resilient aspects of enhanced VLRs, this final module outlines three practical ways for a local government to strengthen its VLR to help achieve greater overall impact – impact that is commensurate with the level of effort required to undertake a VLR.
Specifically, this module provides guidance for local governments to:
Strengthen linkages with your country’s Voluntary National Review (VNR) and the Voluntary Subnational Review (VSR) of your regional government. By strengthening how both the content and process of your VLR connects and informs your country’s VNR and your regional government’s VSR, you help amplify key messages and build relationships between local, sub-national, and national government;
Strengthen linkages with local government planning, budgeting, and monitoring. By ensuring that your VLR provides practical information that is relevant to your local government’s planning, budgeting, and monitoring processes, you strengthen the ability of your VLR to have short and long-term impact on sustainable, green, and resilient recovery and transitions; and
Support the means of implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Means of implementation is a term used within the United Nations system to convey key enabling factors for action. For VLRs, this means ensuring that the content and process of a VLR help inform and support such aspects as: the use of the full array of available financing sources and instruments; technology development and transfer for sustainable development and resilience; and the development and use of local SDG progress indicators and data to inform continuous improvement.
For detailed Module 6 Guidance Notes, please go here: Guidance Note
This slide deck presentation provides a different format for absorbing the content of the guidance note on strengthening VLRs to achieve greater impact: Training Slides
This document summarizes a few good practice examples of how local governments in Brazil and Serbia are strengthening their VLRs by providing relevant and creating efficient means of implementation: Good Practice Examples
This short quiz helps you assess your understanding of this module's Guidance Note and Training Slides (results of quiz are for your information): Self Test
Proceed to Facilitator Manual
Facilitator Manual
Facilitator Guide
Enhanced VLR Guidance Portal
For Sustainable, Green and Resilient Recovery & Transitions
What is the Enhanced VLR Guidance Portal?
The Enhanced VLR Guidance Portal is an online suite of six easily accessible information modules designed to help local government officials and experts to enhance the content and process of their Voluntary Local Review to better support sustainable, green and resilience recovery & transition at the local level.
Each information module consists of the following products:
Overview Video (approx. 2-minute narrated video)
Guidance Note
Summary Sheet (1-page, brochure format)
Training Slides (PDF Hyperlink, expanding on the content in the Guidance Note)
Case Examples (a PDF Powerpoint link featuring the case examples from the Training Slides)
Self-test Questions (Microsoft Forms poll questions and answers)
The Portal is not a self-guided e-learning course. Rather, it is a website of information products where users can access any of the module content depending on their local needs and interests.
Who are the Target Users?
The Enhanced VLR Guidance Portal is meant to support a dual audience:
Officials of local governments and organizations who are in the process of preparing or considering a VLR.
Experts across the UN system and its partners who are assisting local governments and organizations in the preparation of VLRs.
How Should Users Use the Portal?
The modules and the information products contained therein, are designed to be multi-purpose. The online content is meant to inform individual users on how to enhance their VLR to better support sustainable, green and resilient recovery & transition.
The content is also meant to be adapted and used by local government officials or experts across the UN system and its partners to inform those persons at the local level who will be preparing a VLR (via in-person workshops or virtual webinars).
If you are among the latter, this Facilitator/Training Guide is for you.
This Guide will help you prepare and deliver workshop (in-person or virtual) to convey the key messages of the Portal. Workshop agendas are provided of varying lengths along with suggested exercises and how to make use of the various other information products in each module including the Training Videos, Guidance Notes, Summary Sheets, Training Slides, , Case Examples and Self-test Questions.
What Users Will and Won’t Find in this Guidance Portal?
Through this Guidance Portal and its information modules, users will learn how to enhance VLRs to support Sustainable, Green and Resilient Recovery & Transitions. This portal does not provide guidance on how to prepare a VLR; such guidance is already available to local governments and organizations.
All guidance provided in the Portal is based on existing information gleaned from across the United Nations system and its partners.
Module 1 provides a summary of the Portal and is followed by two modules that provide guidance on how the process and content of a VLR can help support green transitions at the local level, including via climate neutrality (module 2) and the circular economy (module 3).
Next, the VLR Guidance Portal provides guidance for how VLRs can help support resilience at the community level, including through natural assets and city services (module 4) and via disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation (module 5).
Finally, module 6 provides specific guidance on strengthening VLRs by linking closely to the content and process of the Voluntary National Review (VNR) and to local government planning, budgeting, and reporting, as well as by informing the means of implementation, including exploring new financing sources and instruments, supporting technological development and transfer, improving local trade and market access, and supporting local SDG progress indicators and data.
Suggested Workshop Agenda
Introductory Workshop (Duration: 1.5 hours)
Time | Agenda Item | Additional Guidance |
|---|---|---|
| 1 week before workshop | Pre-workshop Reading
| Priority participants of this workshop are persons responsible for completing the VLR, along with persons who will be contributing to either the process or content of the VLR. |
| 0-10 Minutes | Welcome and Introduction
|
The workshop should be opened and concluded by the lead coordinator or manager of the VLR process. |
| 10-40 Minutes | How the VLR can Better Support Green and Resilient Recovery and TransitionsOverview Presentation:
Plenary Discussion [15min]:
|
Module 1 Training Slides (select slides to fit time available).
Facilitator to guide the discussion, with an assigned notetaker. The purpose of this discussion is to identify which of the leverage points listed in the Guidance Portal (Modules 2 through 5) could be taken advantage of in your VLR. |
| 40-70 Minutes | How to Strengthen the VLR for Better Overall ImpactOverview Presentation:
Plenary Discussion [15min]
| Module 6 Training Slides (select slides to fit time available).
Facilitator to guide the discussion, with an assigned notetaker. The purpose of this discussion is to identify which of the leverage points listed in the Guidance Portal (Module 6) could be taken advantage of in your VLR. |
| 70-90 Minutes | Roles, Responsibilities and Next StepsEnhancing our VLR to support Green and Resilient Recovery and Transition
Strengthening our VLR for Greater Impact
Next Steps | The purpose of this last session is to recap the priority areas discussed and assign a specific person to be the custodian of that action area:
After persons have been assigned roles and responsibilities, as them to preview the content in the online Guidance Portal relating to their assigned area. The next steps agenda item should ideally be delivered by the lead coordinator or manager of the VLR. |