Greece’s Voluntary National Review (VNR) will be presented by the National Delegation at the United Nations High Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development, which will be held between 9-18 July 2018, in New York. The Office of Coordination, Institutional, International and European Affairs (OCIIEA) of the General Secretariat of the Government, after taking up the task of coordinating and monitoring the implementation of the SDGs at national level, has undertaken initiatives, through the setting up of an Inter-ministerial Coordination Network. The VNR Report is the outcome of intensive work, during the past one and a half years by the OCIIEA, the inter-ministerial Coordination Network and the social partners. The major stakeholders, including the Economic and Social Council of Greece (ESC), which is the constitutionally recognized institution responsible for the conduct of social dialogue, and in which the social partners and all other major stakeholders are represented, contributed their input as to the specific thematic SDGs Greece will have to focus on in order to overcome the persisting crisis, thus creating positive spill-over effects for all other SDGs.
The NVR presents: (a) the institutional mechanism in Greece, which ensures the high political ownership and commitment to a successful implementation of SDGs and fosters social dialogue, (b) the government policies which are focusing on the 8 national priorities for the SDGs and their connection with specific SDGs and the new National Growth Strategy, (c) the involvement of stakeholders (regional level, academic and research community, private sector, civil society), (d) the core implementation means and examples of a whole-of-government approach and (e) the necessary following steps, such as the National Implementation Plan for the SDGs.
With this VNR Report, the first phase of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in Greece is completed, with the next phase being the planning and development of the National Implementation Plan for SDGs.