The International Development Committee (IDC), a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, recently concluded a year-long inquiry into UK implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The LGA of England and Wales collaborated with Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) to submit written and oral local evidence to this enquiry.
LGA’s written submission strongly pushed the message of how integral local government is to the planning, delivery and monitoring of the SDGs and highlighted the UCLG publication “The Sustainable Development Goals: What local governments need to know” as a highly useful resource for all local governments. This message was taken on board by the committee; one of the key conclusions of the committee final report reads that: “Raising awareness of the SDGs and the role of local government in their implementation will be key to their success. International local government organisations such as CLGF and UCLG, as well as the national LGA, are well placed to work with UK central government to help develop a model of aid which better utilises public service practitioners.”
Local evidence for environmental audit on SDGs
LGA and CLGF also collaborated on more detailed written and oral evidence for a separate Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) inquiry into the SDGs, which is still ongoing. The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) too is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the Committee is to consider the extent to which UK government policies and programmers best contribute to environmental protection and sustainable development, and to audit their performance against sustainable development and environmental protection targets.