Russia’s First VNR: Lessons Learnt Accelerating SDG Progress through Voluntary National Reviews Regional Forum on Sustainable Development for the UNECE Region March 19th, 2020

Statement by Mr. Anton Tsvetov, Deputy Director, Department of Multilateral Economic Cooperation and Special Projects,

Ministry of Economic Development, Russian Federation

Honourable Chairman, Excellences, Participants of the Regional Forum on Sustainable Development for the UNECE Region, In July 2020 Russia is scheduled to present its first Voluntary National Review on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals on the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in New York. I would like to use this opportunity to share with you today an overview of how the Russian Federation approached its first VNR and some key lessons learnt.

1. How was the VNR prepared? Participants and Processes The main institution charged with preparing the VNR is the Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation (ACG). Other government bodies deeply involved the preparation were the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Federal State Statistic Service (Rosstat). These four institutions together constitute an informal VNR Team that has remained in close contact regarding the VNR and its presentation. At the outset of the preparation, in May 2019, the Analytical Center (ACG) created under its auspices 17 Thematic Working Groups (TWG), one for each SDG. These groups included representatives of government bodies, local and regional authorities, civil society organizations, academic and research institutions as well as the private sector (more than 200 experts from more than 100 organizations). Each TWG was led by a Chair representing an institution that was ultimately responsible for drafting a chapter for the VNR on a particular SDG, with Chairs representing not only government institutions, but civil society, private sector and research organizations as well. Each TWG convened on its own accord and held discussions on which data to include into their respective chapters. By late 2019, all groups have drafted their chapters and held public discussions thereof to ensure that all approaches to the sustainable development were taken in consideration. On March 13th, the first draft of the compiled VNR was discussed by an inclusive group of stakeholders. Key comments addressed the structure of the chapters, choice of statistical data, the integration of views from the civil society and the private sector.

In parallel, by late 2019 a decision was made on the approach to the VNR presentation and the 2020 HLPF. The Ministry of Economic Development was tasked with leading the effort in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), since the former has a wide range of responsibilities across almost all sustainable development themes ranging from poverty alleviation and national planning to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions management and public administration.

2. Key Features of the VNR Although we are still introducing alterations and additions to the VNR, there are several features of the Review and the preparation process we believe can be of interest to the participants of today’s Forum. Chapters on all 17 SDGs. The ACG has opted for drafting chapters on all 17 SDGs and sourcing elaborate information on government policies, legal frameworks, international cooperation and statistics that would cover the progress so far, key challenges and best practices across all Goals. This approach is meant to serve both as a tool for transparency on the current state of affairs in Russia and as a means for Russia’s international partners to source approaches and practices that could be helpful in their own quest to achieve the SDGs. 3 A focus on National Projects. The Review focuses on how SDGs are achieved via the main instrument of development policy planning in Russia, namely the National Goals and National Projects. In 2018, under a Presidential Executive Order (see below), National Goals and Strategic Objectives for the Russian Federation were set forth, with 12 national projects and an infrastructure plan in place to achieve them. These became key instruments of national planning and development policy. Both the National Goals and the National Projects are in line with Russia’s SDG commitments even when they are not branded as SDG-related. Business cases across goals. Involving the private sector in SDG implementation is one of the strategic priorities of Russia’s approach to sustainable development. Businesses play a key role in achieving SDGs and are often better versed in sustainable development policies than public bodies. This is why the VNR pays special attention to showcasing best practices from the private sector across the SDGs. International cooperation showcased. Apart from information on what is done within Russia to achieve the SDGs domestically, the Review demonstrates what Russia is doing to promote the 2030 Agenda internationally. That includes a focus on SDGs in development aid projects via the UN System and cooperation initiatives on multilateral fora, including regional mechanisms (EAEU, SCO) and global governance platforms (G20, BRICS). The year 2020 is also when Russia is chairing BRICS and SCO and sustainable development is highlighted by Russia in these institutions driven in part by the VNR process. 

3. Highlights of the Preparation Process SDG-related statistics presented in a separate publication. Throughout the VNR process, the national statistical body Rosstat was outstandingly active both domestically and internationally. In late 2019, after a robust interagency process Rosstat published Russia’s first statistical yearbook on SDG titled Sustainable Development Goals in the Russian Federation. This publication presents key development indicators across all 17 SDGs. The yearbook can be accessed at: www.eng.gks.ru/sdg/report Public discussions held on each SDG and the draft VNR. Along the lines of due procedure, each individual chapter of the VNR was discussed with an inclusive group of stakeholders from government, civil society, academic community and the private sector with an end to triangulate approaches, collect comprehensive data and ensure broad public ownership. The same was done for the first draft of the VNR. Over the course of the last six months, representatives of the ACG, the Ministry of Economic Development, MFA and Rosstat discussed the VNR process and the national sustainable policy at public events and academic conferences to raise awareness of Russia’s commitments and progress on the 2030 Agenda. SDG preparedness audit by the Accounts Chamber. In early 2020, the Accounts Chamber, Russia’s Supreme Audit Institution, launched an audit to look into how the SDGs as integrated into the national public administration system. This SDG preparedness audit is conducted in line 4 with internationally agreed INTOSAI standards and follows the Accounts Chamber’s commitments to the 2030 Agenda featured in the 2020 INTOSAI Moscow Declaration that saw the start of the Russian supreme audit institution as the Chair of the organization for the next three years.

4. SDG Integration into national planning and policy Pre-2018 As briefly mentioned above, the VNR focuses heavily on National Goals and National projects, which represent the main vehicles for SDG implementation in Russia. However, before 2018, there were SDG-related policies in place as well. The majority of SDGs and their individual targets as stated in the 2030 Agenda were to varying degrees reflected in a number of Russia’s official planning documents. Way before the SDGs were in place, fundamental principles of Russia’s transition to sustainable development were set out in the Concept of the Transition of the Russian Federation to Sustainable Development, adopted by the President’s Executive Order in 1996. The Concept aimed to balance solutions to social, economic and environmental challenges and preserve natural resources for current and future generations. Since then and up to 2018, the economic, social and environmental challenges corresponding to the SDGs were addressed on the national level through State Programmes of social and economic development of Russia, including State Targeted Programmes. National Goal and National Projects of 2018 On May 7, 2018 the President of the Russian Federation signed Executive Order No 204 on National Goals and Strategic Objectives of the Russian Federation through to 2024. This document set forth nine National Goals, including those to ensure sustainable growth of real income, to cut poverty in half, to improve housing conditions, to accelerate technological development, to ensure economic growth rates above the global average, while maintaining macroeconomic stability, and others. To achieve of the stated goals, the Government of the Russian Federation developed 12 National Projects, each in its own domain and containing Federal Projects. 

Despite the practical correlation of national development policies to the 2030 Agenda, there is no single government agency or organization directly authorized to coordinate the SDG implementation in Russia. International cooperation on sustainable development via the UN System is predominantly covered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Economic Development. The latter is also in charge of drafting national planning instruments and in doing so considers integrating principles, indicators and other elements of the 2030 Agenda in national planning and policy. SDG-related policies are managed by individual ministries that cover specific issues of socio-economic development while the Government provides policy coherence. Interdepartmental Working Group for the Presidential Executive Office on Climate Change and Sustainable Development ensures interaction between stakeholders from government, scientific and other organizations in implementing state policy related to climate change and ensuring sustainable development. The Accounts Chamber in scheduled to carry out an assessment of the public administration system preparedness for SDG implementation before the VNR process is over in 2020.

5. Monitoring and Measuring Progress Among the various aspects of SDG implementation in Russia, monitoring and measuring progress is arguably the most forward-leaning. In February 2017, a Group of Experts on Statistical Monitoring was created under the chairmanship of Federal State Statistic Service reporting to the Interdepartmental Working Group for the Presidential Executive Office on Climate Change and Sustainable Development. The Group of Experts is implementing a set of policy actions to monitor the SDG indicators in the Russian Federation, such as:  implementing of the SDG global indicator system at the national level; preparing an Action plan to improve official statistics of the Russian Federation, aimed at generating official statistics on SDG indicators;  developing of a national set of SDG indicators;  verifying Russian data in the UN global database;  creating a national reporting platform for SDG indicators.

6. Lessons Learnt A key lesson learnt during the VNR process was that policies aimed at achieving SDGs and an overall sustainable development policy with balanced attention to economic, social and environmental factors is achievable when such an approach is taken to national planning as a whole. The draft VNR clearly demonstrates that the national development policy of the Russian Federation is indeed geared towards achieving SDGs even in without an SDG-titled planning document. This brings us to an important distinction between SDG-branded and SDG-related policies. As the Accounts Chamber requested information on the integration of SDGs into national public administration and planning, the Ministry of Economic Development systematised relevant information and presented a case that a wide range of policies, State Programs and of course National Projects, as well as their due implementation, lead to the achievement of SDGs, while not being branded as such. The above issue is manifest of another important lesson learnt. More attention should be paid to raising the level of awareness about SDGs among both policy practitioners and the public. Over the course of the last year a series of high profile public events focusing on SDGs took place, many of them initiated as a direct response to the VNR process and citing the 2020 presentation of Russia’s first Review as a raison d’etre for said public activities. Some of these events were platforms for dialogue across stakeholder groups, such as the Common Future Forum, others focused on the role of particular groups in the 2030 Agenda and Russia’s contribution thereto – cities, businesses, regions, statistical bodies, youth organizations, etc. Finally, as Russia has been gearing up for its first VNR, the dialogue between government and the private sector has also been intensifying. Globally active Russian companies are often even more aware of the particular challenges of fulfilling the sustainable development agenda than government institutions. These companies have robust sustainability programs in place and play a 7 key role in setting global sustainability standards. Our understanding of Russian businesses’ contribution to the 2030 Agenda has progressed greatly and we are working on creating better information flows to educate and be educated on what can be done on a global scale to promote the contribution of Russian companies to the achievement of the SDGs. Honourable Chairman, Excellences, participants of the Forum, I thank you for your attention today and invite you to share with us your experience on the VNR Process.