Voluntary National Reviews (VNR) is a follow-up process of assessing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the 2030 Agenda by each country. The VNR report has to be submitted to the United Nations for regular reviews to high-level-political forum (HLPF), under the auspices of UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Pakistan adopted the SDGs as the national agenda and has committed to submit the VNR report in June 2019 at the UN.

The VNR process of consultation started in October, 2018, by the Ministry of Planning, Reform and Development’s SDG Reform Unit as they organized a VNR Process Stakeholder meeting in Islamabad. The meeting brought various actors on the same platform to discuss the discourse of the VNR process. It provided a great opportunity for the stakeholders to give their feedback on how to conduct the VNR process. The proceedings outlined a process for the provinces to adopt to conduct the VNR process at the provincial level. In the meeting, sub-committees were listed which were recommended to be formed with multiple organizations taking part in them at the provincial level to discuss different SDGs.

After the stakeholder meeting, a consultation meeting was organized in Islamabad, by Sightsavers with other partners like SEDA, ITA, STEP etc. and other non-profit organizations. This VNR consultation meeting was organized to bring stakeholders who are working on disability. It mainly addressed the SDGs related to inclusion and disability. This stakeholder consultation provided an opportunity for various organizations working on disability to share their work and plan how to take the VNR process forward.

The VNR process provides an opportunity for all civil society organizations and governments to work together and assess their own progress. At ITA, we are assisting the Sindh, Punjab and KP governments in compiling their VNR reports, so that their work can be highlighted in the national VNR report. The VNR process, is a way of measuring success of each country’s progress in achieving the SDGs. It is a way of holding countries accountable to the promise they have made to SDG Agenda 2030.

We, at ITA hope and are trying our best to make the VNR report a comprehensive national report for Pakistan’s progress in fulfilling its commitment to Agenda 2030, as this is also our national agenda. The process requires collaboration and coordination and ITA welcomes all organizations, to come together and make the VNR report reflect the efforts of our government and CSOs.