Scotland and the sustainable development goals: a national review to drive action

Contextual Note

This report is a collaborative effort between the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Network Scotland, Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA). The initial commission for contributions was made in February 2019, with a final draft made publicly available in September 2019 for comment. This publication is the final draft and is current as of September 2019. As such, it does not cover the period of the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland (from March 2020 onwards).

The Supplementary Review is intended to help shape conversations about priorities, how we can learn from success and how to take action as a country to make good on the 2030 Agenda and Scotland’s wellbeing framework – the National Performance Framework (NPF). These conversations are now set in the context of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, its implications for policy delivery, and how we respond to the crisis, recover from the harms it has caused and renew Scotland.

In order to focus our collective efforts on addressing the challenges raised by COVID-19, we have taken a pragmatic approach to publishing this final draft version, with minor amendments, reflecting comments made in response to the version we made available in September 2019. It brings together the evidence, actions and stories of how we were making progress towards the SDGs in the pre-pandemic world. While we believe it to be accurate as of that date, readers are advised to check the latest position, for example, via the websites of the Scottish Government, SDG Network Scotland or COSLA.

In bringing the publication process to a conclusion, we want to look ahead to how the SDGs can inform policy development and strategies for a balanced and sustainable recovery out of the COVID-19 crisis. We trust that this draft review provides a statement of our pre-COVID-19 ambition on driving progress towards the SDGs in Scotland and keeps in sight our achievements so far. We hope it can function as a baseline to track progress towards the SDGs, and a point of reference to track impacts of the pandemic on the delivery of the 2030 Agenda and on our National Outcomes.