Bonn benefits in the long term from expert exchange on SDG monitoring
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary, Part II on the activities and effects of Connective Cities
Photo: Federal City of Bonn
The city of Bonn is considered a pioneer in reporting on the local implementation of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda. In 2022, it presented its second voluntary implementation report – a Voluntary Local Review (VLR) – to the United Nations. A significant milestone in this journey was a dialogue event held in April 2021, which the city organized jointly with Connective Cities.
Growing attention for Voluntary Local Reviews
Bonn embarked early on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015. It was among the first of approximately 40 cities worldwide to submit a VLR. Following the publication of its first VLR in 2020, there was a desire to further advance its work through international exchange and to share its experiences with others.
On the steps of Bonn City Hall | Photo: Federal City of Bonn, Martin Magunia
The city proposed to the Connective Cities team to organize a dialogue event in 2021, bringing together German and international experts from local governments, municipal companies, civil society, business, and academia to exchange ideas on reporting and monitoring SDG implementation. This proposal caught the spirit of the time: 60 experts from 19 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America participated in the – corona-related virtual – exchange. They discussed good practices and developed local solutions for key challenges using the proven peer-to-peer method as the first step in a Connective Cities learning process.
At that time, apart from Stuttgart, Mannheim and Bonn, few cities in Germany had drafted implementation reports on the 2030 Agenda. There was also great interest in learning more about the activities of cities in Europe and beyond in non-European countries. "The collaboration with Connective Cities was interesting for us because the team was able to mobilise important actors through its extensive network, to whom we did not have direct access to ourselves," recalls Verena Schwarte from the City of Bonn's Office for International Affairs and Global Sustainability.
Reporting framework Sustainable municipality
After the dialogue event, the City of Bonn took the opportunity to become one of ten cities in North Rhine-Westphalia to draft a sustainability report following the standardised reporting framework Sustainable Municipality of the Council for Sustainable Development (RNE). It received support from the RNE, the Service Agency Communities in One World (SKEW) of Engagement Global, and the State Working Group Agenda 21 NRW. Due to the strict pre-structuring of the reporting framework, Bonn refrained from establishing additional indicators as initially planned during the dialogue event and from involving science and civil society more closely in SDG monitoring, reporting, and data collection through a citizen science project.
A vibrant network
The dialogue event opened many new doors for the City of Bonn, such as to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT). It participated in a study by the Stockholm Environment Institute on localising the 2030 Agenda and strengthened its contacts, including with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), among others.
"The dialogue event has opened doors to new networks for us." Verena Schwarte, Office for International Affairs and Global Sustainability of the City of Bonn
Bonn continued its exchange with other participants after the dialogue event, creating numerous win-win situations, including bilateral online workshops. When the western Ukrainian city of Lviv established its SDG monitoring system, Bonn provided support with its experiences.
SDG wheel of fortune from Bonn | Photo: Federal City of Bonn
SDG map of Manizales - during the SDG week in Manizales
Manizales in Colombia pursues a similar approach to communicating with the public as Bonn: both cities use playful elements: Bonn successfully uses the SDG Wheel of Fortune in public, while Manizales uses large SDG cards. Since then, they have been exchanging their strategies and experiences. Additionally, the city of Bonn virtually participated in the SDG Week in Manizales, presenting its approach to localising the SDGs. At the same time, the German city gained insights into SDG implementation and monitoring in Latin America.
In 2023, Bonn also contributed its experiences to the "VLR goes Ghana" project by the SKEW and the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
The approaches of other German municipalities that participated in the dialogue event were also of great value to Bonn: Bonn exchanged ideas with the Berlin district of Treptow-Köpenick on the dashboard that the district uses for its monitoring. Treptow-Köpenick also connected Bonn with the university that developed the dashboard. Since then, Bonn and the city of Stuttgart have maintained a regular exchange on inner-urban sustainability management.
In September 2022, Bonn invited its partner cities to an SDG Partnership Conference, where monitoring played a central role. Guests from La Paz in Bolivia provided input that other partner cities of Bonn wanted to use as an idea for their own monitoring. Since then, the monitoring of the SDG implementation has become an integral part of Bonn's collaboration with its partner cities worldwide.
Networked Bonn in the spirit of the 2030 Agenda | Photo: Federal City of Bonn, Martin Magunia
New insights
The exchange with other experts provided the City of Bonn with numerous new insights. For example, municipalities in other countries, such as La Paz in Bolivia, have much more detailed data on localising the 2030 Agenda, some of which even broken down to individual districts. Bonn's partner municipality Cape Coast in Ghana also has a better database. The reason being: Cape Coast relies on project funds from international donors, requiring comprehensive data for its applications and has therefore already compiled a good database.
A key aim for many municipalities is that their local SDG reporting is included in the national reports that are submitted annually to the United Nations High-Level Political Forum. Many German municipalities see a need for more action here and the participants of the dialogue event learned how Scandinavian countries – especially Finland – seamlessly interlink the local and national levels in an exemplary manner. This could also be a good blueprint for their own efforts in Germany.
A worthwhile engagement
For Bonn, participating in the Connective Cities expert exchange was well worth it. The city learned new approaches to SDG implementation, reporting, and monitoring and continues to exchange ideas with (inter)national experts. During the exchange with international experts, Verena Schwarte realised how much the city had already achieved: "Since then, we have received an increasing number of inquiries about our work on SDG monitoring and are regularly invited by institutions associated with the United Nations and academia to share our experiences."
How Bonn Benefits from the Expert Exchange:
Engagement with other municipalities and institutions involved in SDG reporting and monitoring – beyond its existing network
New impulses – from both the Global North and South
International positioning as a pioneering city in SDG monitoring
Embedding SDG monitoring as a key component in international municipal partnership work
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