Patricia Galdamez at the Global Workshop on Civil Society “Parallel Reports” for SDG16

Beyond VNRs: Global Workshop on Civil Society ‘’Parallel Reports’ for SG16  was organized on July 14 by the Transparency, Accountability & Participation (TAP) Network, Asia Development Alliance (ADA), Article 19 and Transparency International.

The workshop provided a timely opportunity to convene civil society stakeholders working around SDG16 and Voluntary National Review (VNR) processes at all levels to discuss approaches to civil society reporting on SDG16.

Governments acknowledged in the 2030 Agenda that SDG follow-up and review systems will “support accountability to our citizens” and that these systems will be “open, inclusive, participatory and transparent for all people and will support the reporting by all relevant stakeholders.” While the Voluntary National Review (VNR) process will be the primary channel for reporting on country-level progress on the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda, civil society “parallel reports” will be vital to ensuring an independent, robust and accurate assessment of progress within countries, and providing a direct means to promote this government accountability to its citizens.