[Title] OSAKA UPDATE ON THE G20 ACTION PLAN ON THE 2030 AGENDA FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

1. INTRODUCTION

As our premier forum for international economic cooperation, the G20 has a leading role to play in contributing to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the Sustainable Development Goals and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. The current G20 agenda encompasses action on a range of social and environmental challenges that require global solutions from preventing the spread of pandemics, to reducing inequalities. The G20's value added in international cooperation for sustainable development is based on its global capacity to keep up momentum towards the 2030 Agenda, and harnessing their commitment to advance G20 collective actions on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In Buenos Aires, G20 Leaders reaffirmed their commitment to "leading the transformation towards sustainable development" by contributing to the provision of global public goods and by supporting the integration of low-income and developing countries into a sustainable global economy.

G20 leaders first signalled their intention to develop an action plan to further align the G20's work with the 2030 Agenda at the G20 Antalya Summit in 2015.

In 2016, in Hangzhou, leaders endorsed the G20 Action Plan on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (referred to hereafter as the Action Plan) committing to place sustainable development for all at the center of the G20's work. The Action Plan is a policy framework based on a set of high-level principles on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Its objective is to mainstream G20 policy actions and align the overall G20's work with the 2030 Agenda. In adopting the Action Plan, G20 members also agreed to implement the agenda at home and abroad, through collective and national actions where the G20 can add value as a premier forum for international economic cooperation, and in accordance with national circumstances. In order to fulfil this commitment, the G20's Development Working Group (DWG) was mandated to act "as a coordinating body and policy resource for sustainable development across the G20", with other G20 working groups and workstreams providing inputs to the DWG. The Action Plan also set out a range of Sustainable Development Sectors (SDS)1 where all the G20 workstreams can contribute with collective and individual concrete actions to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

The Action Plan is a "living document", with a timeframe matching the 2030 Agenda and designed to be updated in line with the priorities of each G20 presidency, emerging needs, lessons and challenges. In Hamburg (2017) and Buenos Aires (2018), G20 leaders took the first steps in the implementation of the Action Plan and mainstreaming all the G20's collective and concrete actions contributing to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. In the Hamburg Update, a comprehensive list of collective actions as well as a Voluntary Peer Learning Mechanism (VPLM) was set up to share experiences and lessons learned between G20 members. A second round of VPLM was launched under the Argentine G20 presidency. This year, the lessons learned have been consolidated by participating countries in policy briefs annexed to the Osaka Update.

Finally, in the Buenos Aires Update, leaders committed to highlight collective and concrete G20 actions taken so far on implementing the Action Plan:

We reaffirm our commitment to support the United Nations' follow-up and review process, led by the HLPF. As a forward-looking step, we will highlight collective and concrete G20 actions taken so far towards implementing the G20 Action Plan, and thus contributing to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, taking the opportunity of the HLPF in New York in 2019 which will take place at the level of Heads of States and Governments.

In 2019, the G20 is delivering on this commitment through the Osaka Update in highlighting 2019 priorities and new collective actions put forward by the Japanese G20 Presidency, strengthening the multistakeholder dialogue on the 2030 Agenda through engagements and partnerships, and continuing the peer learning mechanism on the implementation of the Action Plan. In this regard, we take note of the analysis in the OECD-UNDP independent report "G20 CONTRIBUTION TO THE 2030 AGENDA - PROGRESS AND WAY FORWARD -".

2. PRIORITIES FOR 2019

In 2019, the G20 continues its contributions and work towards advancing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as a global framework through the lens of a people-centered approach. The Japanese G20 Presidency has identified the following areas as priorities for 2019. While most of these priority areas are already embedded in the Action Plan as SDS, the preservation of the marine environment has emerged as a new priority and the mainstreaming of the gender perspective is conceived as a crosscutting issue crucial for the G20's work. The achievement of sustainable development in partnership with Africa has also been a continuous focus since Hangzhou and Hamburg Summit.

Following the 2019 G20 Osaka Summit, the Japanese Presidency is going to highlight the G20's collective actions in support of implementation of the 2030 Agenda as a global framework at the HLPF in New York in September 2019, which will take place at the level of Heads of States and Governments. The G20's collective action can accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, and transform societies to help to ensure "no one is left behind".

The G20 under Japanese Presidency in 2019 built on policy actions taken by previous presidencies and sought to move them forward to further support the 2030 Agenda based on the following priorities articulated by the Japanese Presidency.

(1) Priorities

(i) Health and education

Health

Recognizing that health is a precondition for and an outcome and an indicator of all three dimensions of sustainable development and that investments in health contribute to sustainable, inclusive economic growth, the G20 is continuing its work in support of coordinated responses to global health issues to advance progress towards the SDGs, demonstrating a strong political commitment to tackle such challenges through global actions. In 2016, Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) was included for the first time in the G20 Leader's Communiqué of the Hangzhou Summit. In 2017, the G20 expressed its support to move towards universal health coverage (UHC) in line with national contexts and priorities, improved preparedness against health threats which highlighted the importance of resilient health systems in this regard, including infectious disease outbreaks, and discussed ways to strengthen the prudent use of antimicrobials and to boost the pharmaceutical R&D pipeline. They called for a new international R&D Collaboration Hub to maximize the impact of existing and new research initiatives as well as product development. In 2018, the G20 highlighted the issue of childhood obesity, complemented existing work on health security, AMR and Health Systems strengthening.

At least half of the world's population still does not have access to essential health care and many people become impoverished because of catastrophic health expenditures and lack of financial and social protection. Moreover, threats from pandemics and emerging infectious diseases are ongoing. Changes of disease burden and demography require further G20's discussion and coordinated actions.

Based on the progress already achieved, the G20 under Japanese Presidency considers concrete actions to move toward UHC through the strengthening of national health systems, and to respond to emerging issues such as population aging, health security and AMR in line with national contexts and priorities. The G20 can usefully learn from and contribute to fostering closer partnerships with the private sector to incentivise and promote innovation for improved health outcomes. Collaboration between health and finance ministers should also be highlighted to promote sustainable financing for UHC.

Education

At the G20 Hamburg Summit in 2017, the leaders stressed the importance of "the role of vocational education and training, including quality apprenticeship in integrating young people into the labour market," launched the G20 Rural Youth Employment Initiative and committed to "promote digital literacy and digital skills in all forms of education and life-long learning." The leaders also resolved to "improve women's access to labour markets through provision of quality education and training, supporting infrastructure, public services and social protection policies and legal reforms," and launched the G20 Initiative #eSkills4Girls which aims at overcoming the gender digital divide and facilitates education and digital skills training for better employment opportunities for women and girls in the digital economy.

At the G20 Buenos Aires Summit in 2018, the leaders also stated that "access to education is a human right" and especially underlined the importance of girls' education. The leaders also acknowledged "the need to foster evidence-based innovative pedagogies and methods for all levels of education," and planned to promote coordination between employment and equitable quality education policies. A step in this direction was the first G20 joint meeting of Education and Employment Ministers. The importance of providing lifelong learning opportunities starting from early childhood was also confirmed in the G20 Initiative for Early Childhood Development (ECD), which recognised "ECD as the basis for building human capital and adaptive capacities for the future of work."

Building upon such past efforts, the G20 is aiming to deepen investments in human capital as a key driver to advance progress toward the 2030 Agenda and to help to ensure that "no one is left behind", recognising that inclusive quality education is not only a standalone goal but also a cross-cutting enabler for achieving all other goals. Under the Japanese Presidency, the G20 worked on elaborating an initiative on human capital investment, focusing on 1) quality education for achieving sustainable development and inclusive growth, 2) education for creating innovation, and 3) education for a resilient and inclusive future.

(ii) Quality Infrastructure

Under Japanese Presidency, based on previous conclusions of G20 summits2, the G20 elaborated on a set of Principles on Quality Infrastructure Investment with the Infrastructure Working Group (IWG) acting as a focal point by incorporating inputs from the DWG and the Anti-Corruption Working Group (ACWG) building upon past G20 efforts.

The G20 endeavors to promote quality infrastructure investment in line with the Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment.

(iii) Innovation

At the G20 Hangzhou Summit in 2016, based on the discussion at three Task Forces on Innovation, New Industrial Revolution and Digital Economy as well as the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Ministers' Meeting which was launched under the Chinese Presidency, the leaders confirmed their support to "dialogue and cooperation on innovation, which covers a wide range of domains with science and technology innovation at its core" to "achieve innovation-driven growth and the creation of innovative ecosystems", and endorsed the G20 Blueprint on Innovative Growth and the G20 Innovation Action Plan. STI can be an important consideration for making the best use of limited resources in the pursuit of achieving the 2030 Agenda.

Under the Japanese Presidency, the G20 shared the view that STI could play an important role to support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda by launching the "Guiding Principles for the Development of STI for SDGs Roadmaps".

(iv) Gender equality

In 2016, through its Action Plan, G20 members agreed to increase their collective implementation efforts across a range of different policy areas. Apart from overall progress on labour force participation, there has been a small reduction in the pace of closing the gender pay gap in G20 members since 2010, averaging around 17%, while addressing the inequalities around unpaid work remains a persistent challenge. Furthermore, women are increasingly lagging behind in the digital revolution in terms of access, education and hence job opportunities concerning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Globally, 250 million fewer women are online than men, and on average only 25% of graduates in STEM subjects across the G20 are women.

Under the Chinese, German and Argentine Presidencies, leaders committed to the development of women and girls' digital skills and increasing their participation in STEM. Under both the German and Argentine Presidencies, leaders affirmed that more needs to be done on the Brisbane commitment to reduce the gender gap in labour force participation; promoted initiatives aimed at ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls and gender-based violence; and, promoted women's economic empowerment, including by working with the private sector. Under the Argentine Presidency, leaders also recognized that "gender equality is crucial for economic growth and fair and sustainable development", noting the need to engage women entrepreneurs and promote women's access to leadership and decision-making positions.

The Japanese Presidency has set its priorities on this agenda as: 1) closing the gender gaps in labour force participation, 2) enhancing support for girls and women's education, including investing in early childhood development, 3) engaging further with women business leaders and entrepreneurs. This work is based on the G20's previous commitments and targets, including through the monitoring of the G20's progress on its Brisbane goal to reduce the gender gap in labour force participation rates by 25 percent by 2025. Women's empowerment and helping to ensure gender equality is also important in the context of inclusive and sustainable society (Society 5.0.).

(v) Climate change

Key elements that were raised at the discussion under the Climate Sustainability Working Group are as follows: 1) Accelerating virtuous cycle of environment and growth, 2) Mobilizing climate finance, 3) Inviting more innovative and new approaches, 4) Supporting actions and cooperation in adaptation and disaster risk reduction, 5) Taking actions in all levels including non-state actors, 6) Commitment to COP process.

(vi) Marine Environment

In 2017 at the G20 Hamburg Summit, the marine litter issue was put on the agenda for the first time, with leaders deciding on the establishment of the G20 Marine Litter Action Plan, which led to a commitment to focus on priority areas such as waste prevention and resource efficiency, sustainable waste management awareness raising, education and research, and removal and remediation. As the G20 Marine Litter Action Plan laid the foundation for the G20 to address marine litter particularly plastic litter, it is important to further facilitate concrete actions on marine plastic litter to support the Action Plan. In order to effectively resolve this problem, it is important to promote measures to reduce the discharge of mismanaged plastic litter into the ocean including through a comprehensive science-based product life-cycle approach while recognizing the important role of plastics. It is imperative for the G20 to encourage international collaboration and cooperation to enhance national capacity, and facilitate concrete and innovative actions including with the private sector, in line with the G20 Action Plan on Marine Litter which center focusing on combatting marine litter, including plastic litter and microplastics.

To this end, under the Japanese presidency, the G20 worked on establishing the G20 Marine Plastic Litter Implementation Framework which includes information sharing and continued updating, promotion of international cooperation, promotion of innovative solutions, sharing scientific information and knowledge, multi-stakeholder involvement, and awareness raising.

(2) Engagements and Partnerships

While the G20 plays a critical role in leading efforts towards sustainable development, engagement with multi-stakeholders helps further contribute to the 2030 Agenda implementation. In this context, in order to help progress implementation across this set of priorities, the Japanese Presidency also convened two side events and one special session with a view to strengthen partnership and cooperation with relevant stakeholders, and incorporated the outcomes where necessary (These informal side events and special session were intended to inform G20 thinking, but do not necessarily reflect the consensus of the G20):

A seminar on Effective Triangular Co-operation for Achieving the 2030 Agenda, co-organised by the OECD, the Argentine Republic and JICA, was held on 23 January, with G20 delegates, experts and civil society. The aim of this seminar was to provide political support to triangular cooperation as an increasingly important modality of the new development paradigm for sustainable development. Following the previous G20 event on triangular co-operation in Buenos Aires in April 2018, the seminar focused on the concrete roles of developing, emerging and developed countries respectively as knowledge providers by presenting a typology and connecting the knowledge in the field with the knowledge at the policy level. The panel discussion highlighted key factors for effective triangular cooperation such as a demand-driven approach; and the need for related G20 members to develop new partnerships and broaden the supporters for this approach.

A seminar on Disaster Risk Reduction -Prospects on Achieving Disaster Risk Reduction Agenda, co- organised by UNISDR, UNDP and JICA, was held on 13 March, with G20 delegates, experts and civil society. The purpose of this seminar was to discuss the G20's role in taking forward the disaster risk reduction agenda in the context of the Sendai Framework.

A session on Innovative Financing for Sustainable Development was held on 13 March, with presentation from UNDP, the OECD, the United Kingdom and France, to exchange views on the current situation and issues we are facing regarding innovative financing for sustainable development. The discussion covered a wide range of innovative financing mechanisms such as an international solidarity tax, blended finance and social impact investment. Furthermore, it also touched upon the activities of the Leading Group on Innovative Financing for Development under Japanese Presidency in 2019.

The DWG also conducted dialogues with engagement groups on selected topics in the DWG meetings for knowledge exchange. Furthermore, ahead of the 2020 G20 Saudi Presidency, the UNDP-OECD-G20 Workshop will be held in New York. We recognize the support and contributions from UNDP and OECD in the context of our commitment to the 2030 Agenda.

3. G20 ACHIEVEMENTS BETWEEN 2016-2019

In order to highlight collective and concrete G20 actions taken so far towards implementing the Action Plan at the HLPF at the level of Heads of States and Governments to be held in New York in September 2019, the G20's role in supporting efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda between 2016-2019 are summarized as follows.

At the G20 Hangzhou Summit in 2016, where the leaders expressed their determination to foster an innovative, invigorated, interconnected and inclusive world economy, the Chinese Presidency placed the 2030 Agenda high on the G20 agenda in order to realize strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth.

The leaders pledged to enhance policy coherence on sustainable development and reaffirmed their commitment to further align their work with the implementation of the 2030 Agenda to help to ensure that no one is left behind. In Hangzhou Communiqué, they committed to contributing to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda by setting an example through bold, transformative collective and intended national actions in a wide range of areas.

For this purpose, they endorsed the G20 Action Plan on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as a living document and guidance for all G20 Working Groups and streams which also includes the high-level principles on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The Action Plan defined the G20's comparative advantage as "its convening power and its collective ability to adopt and support initiatives at the highest global level", and identified SDS as the reflection of the G20's long standing efforts on development and collective strength to address issues of global concern. The leaders also endorsed the G20 Initiative on Supporting Industrialization in Africa and LDCs, with the aim of supporting these countries to speed up industrialization and reduce poverty and pursue sustainable development.

Under the German Presidency's theme "Shaping an interconnected world" in 2017, the 2030 Agenda was one of the priorities. At the G20 Hamburg Summit, leaders underlined the importance of multilateralism as described in the preamble of their communiqué "We can achieve more together than by acting alone", and called for implementation of the 2030 Agenda at global, international and domestic level. In this context, the G20 adopted the Hamburg Update, including a comprehensive list of existing and new concrete and collective actions to be updated by successive presidencies. Leaders also endorsed the Hamburg Principles and Ambitions to mobilise private capital for sustainable development.

At the G20 Hamburg Summit, the G20 leaders discussed various key aspects of 2030 Agenda. In the areas of climate change and environment, G20 members, launched two initiatives: the G20 Marine Litter Action Plan and the G20 Resource Efficiency Dialogue. In discussions focused on global health, leaders shared the view that strong health systems are important to effectively address health crises, and called for a global research initiative to fight against antimicrobial resistance (Global AMR R&D Hub). In order to improve women's equality and empowerment, they launched a multilateral fund to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries (Women Entrepreneurs Financing Initiative). Leaders endorsed the G20 Africa Partnership with the Compact with Africa and the G20 Initiatives on Rural Youth Employment and #eSkills4Girls. Furthermore, China, Germany and Mexico launched the first round of the VPLM, focusing on aligning national sustainable development strategies and plans with the 2030 Agenda and strengthening horizontal and vertical policy coherence, and international cooperation.

During 2018, the Argentine G20 Presidency placed sustainable development at the forefront of the G20 agenda with a people-centred perspective, under the theme "Building consensus for fair and sustainable development". Focusing on reducing poverty and inequality promoting greater and shared prosperity, Argentina put forward three priorities: Infrastructure for Development, the Future of Work, and A Sustainable Food Future. Also, the G20's Early Childhood Development Initiative recognizes the importance of intervening at the most critical stage of human development to break the vicious cycle of intergenerational and structural poverty, societal disparities and inequality of opportunities. Gender issues were mainstreamed across the G20 agenda, encouraging all work streams to focus on and foster women's empowerment, since achieving true sustainable development requires providing equal opportunities for all.

At the G20 Buenos Aires Summit, the G20 Leaders reaffirmed their commitment to leading the transformation towards sustainable development and supported the 2030 Agenda as the framework for advancing this goal and the G20 Action Plan. They endorsed the G20 High Level Principles on Sustainable Habitat through Regional Planning, the G20 Initiative for Early Childhood Development, and the G20 Call on Financing for Inclusive Business, among other collective actions contributing to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in areas such as education, energy transitions, climate sustainability, global health, anticorruption, and sustainable economy policies. The Buenos Aires Update reflected a "whole-of-G20" approach to strengthening coherence and coordination on sustainable development across all G20 working groups and work streams, and compiled the new comprehensive and collective actions the G20 has decided in 2018. Furthermore, as a way to share experiences and foster mutual learning, a second round of a VPLM was launched. Finally, Triangular Cooperation was promoted as an important modality of international cooperation to contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, since the G20, as a global forum bringing together developed and developing countries, can both enable and benefit from the inclusive and horizontal nature of triangular cooperation.

The priorities of the Japanese Presidency for 2019, namely health and education, quality infrastructure, innovation, gender equality, climate change, and marine environment were the focus of discussion under the Japanese Presidency. Regarding the annual update on the Action Plan, please see the table for the details of the G20 achievements in 2019.

4. CONCLUSION

Building upon our past discussions, the G20 under Japanese presidency in 2019 highlighted past collective and concrete actions, and discussed efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda and helping to ensure that "no one is left behind". In order to move forward the implementation of the Action Plan, we continue to implement and take new collective and concrete actions to progress the 2030 Agenda in close cooperation with other G20 working groups and workstreams.

The G20 focused their discussion on priority areas of the Japanese Presidency for 2019, such as health and education, quality infrastructure, innovation, gender equality, climate change, and marine environment. In addition to priority areas for 2019, the G20, building on and complementing the existing Updates, compiled the list of new collective and concrete actions of the G20 in 2019, as shown below, in alignment with the SDS included in the Action Plan, in close consultation among G20 working groups and workstreams. While each G20 working group and workstream remains responsible for implementing and tracking collective commitments within its mandate, the list is expected to serve as a basis for future discussion of DWG as well as a reference for implementing the 2030 Agenda, as well as the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.

TABLE: OSAKA 2019 G20 COLLECTIVE AND CONCRETE ACTIONS CONTRIBUTING TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 2030 AGENDA

*Based on voluntary inputs from responsible workstreams

*Inputs from Working Groups and Ministerial Meetings that will take place after the G20 Osaka Summit are not included in the document

ANNEX : OUTCOMES OF THE 2ND ROUND OF VPLM

Policy Brief by Argentina, Japan and Spain on the results of the 2nd round of the Voluntary Peer Learning Mechanism on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Executive Summary

The participant countries, Argentina, Japan and Spain, agreed to share their experiences at the second round of the Voluntary Peer Learning Mechanism (VPLM), which was carried out through one virtual meeting and two physical meetings, one in Tokyo and the last one in Madrid. OECD and UNDP participated as observers. It was previously arranged that deliberations and mutual exchange on experiences would be done based on two areas: 1) the alignment of national sustainability strategies with the 2030 Agenda, and 2) how to enhance horizontal and vertical policy coherence.

Although each country has diverse contexts, and their own implementation of the 2030 Agenda was done in very different ways, there are many common aspects and lessons learnt that have been identified.

1. Which specific policy and institutional challenges were addressed through this peer learning round?

The main challenges identified by the three countries could be clustered as follows:

- Vertical and Horizontal coherence: the second meeting of the VPLM was devoted exclusively to this topic, as policy coherence is one of the key means of implementation for the SDGs embodied in Target 17.14. The need to avoid gaps and overlaps, arbitrate conflicts of interests, and consider the challenges related to decentralized administrative structures, as well as diversity of rural /urban realities, are some of the main challenges found in this sense. Also trade-offs must be considered. Examples:

    * Spains decarburization process and energy system transformation, and the creation of the Ministry of Ecological Transition;

    * Argentina's prioritization among SDG's and the integrality of the Agenda, especially considering transversal issues (gender, migrants, afrodescendant, people with disabilities, lifecycle and territoriality); and

    * Japan's SDGs Action Plan 2018 and 2019 and promotion of concrete efforts based on the three directions of Japan's SDGs Model: 1) promotion of Society 5.0 that corresponds to SDGs, 2) regional vitalization driven by SDGs, and 3) empowerment of future generation and women.

- Universality (awareness, ownership and engagement): as the implementation of the 2030 should engage all stakeholders- civil society, private sector, academia, as well as different institutions and governmental levels - special efforts to strengthen awareness and commitment were still required.

- Financing SDGs and Means of Implementation: SDGs still suffered from lack of financing, or insufficient alignment of public resources with the SDGs. A better alignment of public spending with national mobilization of resources for development is needed. The role of Parliaments in budgeting the 2030 Agenda implantation is critical. Means of Implementation are also required in order to achieve internal coherence - data, statistics and human resources. As enhancing international development cooperation with developing countries is fundamental to the provision of global public goods, attention must be given to the need to avoid competition between domestic policies and development cooperation policies, which should not affect ODA budget.

2. Which approaches / solutions were shared by which countries?

Some approaches were presented for a successful implementation of the Agenda:

- The establishment of a focal point or coordination bodies reporting directly to the Presidency or Prime Minister: in Argentina, the National Council of Social Policies (CNCPS) depends from the National Presidency; in Japan the SDG's Promotion Headquarters is headed by the Prime Minister; and in Spain the High Commissioner for the 2030 Agenda reports directly to the President of the Government.

- The prioritization of areas and the identification of national policies with special impact on the SDGs: as a useful way to concentrate and delimit action and accelerate the implementation of the SDGs at national policies. In Argentina, prioritization process was done by CNCPS and all Ministers aligned the prioritized targets with their main policies and lines of actions; In Japan, the prioritization was done by SDGs Promotion Headquarters and adopted the SDGs Implementation Guiding Principles which identify 8 priority areas; in Spain, the Action Plan established a first set of nine "leveraging policies" and concrete and immediate ten transformative measures setting up cross-cutting foundations for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

- The constitution of an inter-institutional mechanism comprising all Ministries and organisms with responsibility on the goals in order toensure a transversal approach and keep integrality of the 2030 Agenda: in Argentina, it was established a National Inter-institutional Commission for horizontal coherence, and the signature of an agreement between National Government and Provinces for vertical coherence; in Japan, the SDG's Promotion Headquarters comprises all ministers; and in Spain, there are complementary bodies: the High Level Group for 2030 Agenda for inter-ministerial coordination, the Sustainable development National Council for multi-stakeholder participation, and the National Commission for regional and local level authorities.

3. What are the key success factors of these approaches / solutions?

Having a strong and inclusive governance structure was proven by the three countries to be an essential overarching factor to guarantee a successful implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Successful factors include:

- Leadership and ownership: high level political leadership is central for developing long term strategies, mobilizing resources and actors across sectors and raising awareness. Ownership at local level is also an important factor to mobilize citizenship and for a bottom-up action. Involving parliaments has proven to be critical to enhance the implementation process of the Agenda (eg: Spanish Parliament's accountability mechanism; Argentina's SDG's Observatory in Chamber of Deputies), to enact legislation and design and adopt fiscal policies accordingly.

- Having a high state level institution as coordination body facilitates communication with different organisms and puts the SDGs up in each country's political agenda.

- The prioritization process and national policies alignment requires an internal analysis, exchanges and revisions, allowing e.g. to identify how many departments and policies work on each area; availability of data and statistics in each action or scope; or SDGs budget allocation (and so, the importance each country is giving to each area or SDG, as well as the gaps and unbalance among areas).

- Inter-institutional mechanisms are key for achieving vertical and horizontal coherence and coordination, enhancing a crosscutting perspective and integrated approach, and sharing lessons and experiences. Structures for enhancing coordination at different governance levels are also essential of for vertical coherence.

4. How can failure be avoided?

Coordination: Mechanisms aiming to increase coordination, dialogue and exchange of views among different actors and authorities are an ultimate factor to avoid failure. The 2030 Agenda is an agenda of shared responsibility which requires partnerships and consensus to realize a "whole-of-society" approach to sustainable development for all. The three countries had seek for spaces for coordination:

- In Argentina, the National Council signed cooperation agreements with subnational governments, civil society, academia and other stakeholders to engage them in the process of implementation of the Agenda; furthermore a transversal review was made on the targets and indicator through an iterative process of revisions between human rights organisms and the National Council;

- in Japan, to get feedback on how to better commit to the 2030 Agenda, a roundtable with fourteen experts from outside the government, comprising representatives from the civil society, academia and private sector, among others, was set up; and

- in Spain, stakeholders were engaged throughout the implementation process through constant dialogues with the different platforms - NGO's (like "Futuro en Comun"), the Academia (Spain's Sustainable Development Solution Network and Rectors' Conference of Spanish Universities) and the private sector (Global Compact Spanish Network).

Monitoring and accountability: as a complementary process to the HLPF National Voluntary Reviews, regular monitoring and accountability mechanisms are also fundamental to follow up progress towards the SDGs, and identify possible fails and turnouts. This however needs reliable data and sound statistical systems:

- Argentina has set up a monitoring framework based on 82 targets linked to 243 indicators (selected through an integrated process to adapt targets and indicators) and presented in 2018 the Country Report

- Japan will conduct this 2019 the first follow-up of the "SDGs Promotion Guiding Principles" and will revise these Guidelines;

- Spain has developed a scorecard of indicators, coordinated by the National Statistics Institute, for monitoring progress on the 2030 Agenda's goals. Moreover, Eurostat had defined a framework of its own with 100 indicators for the whole EU as regards the SDGs. Moreover, an Annual Progress Report on the 2030 Agenda has to be presented to the Spanish Parliament.

5. How can we support low-income countries in implementing the 2030 Agenda?

As a universal development agenda, the 2030 Agenda finds in international development cooperation one of its main fields for coordinated action in favour of the developing countries. Enhancing international cooperation, supporting Low Income and other developing countries' strategies and settling a constant and fluent dialogue with partner countries are fundamental aspects of the 2030 Agenda implementation. Alignment of national development strategies and of international cooperation efforts to the SDGs is considered crucial. In particular, triangular cooperation was promoted in the G20 to contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, since as a global forum bringing together developed and developing countries can both enable and benefit from the inclusive and horizontal nature of triangular cooperation. In fact, SDG 17 foresees the means of implementation required, and is entirely devoted to revitalizing the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, and re-consider cooperation polices also as spaces for generating transnational partnerships, for South-North-South cooperation, and for exchanging experiences.

Although discussions on this specific issue were not held during the peer learning process, some specific national experiences were addressed when the vertical coherence theme was worked on, including:

- In Argentina, the Argentine Fund for South-South and Triangular Cooperation (FO.AR) has aligned all their cooperation initiatives with the SDGs, which contributes to measure the impact of the argentine international cooperation on the 2030 Agenda.

- In Spain, one of the 9 leveraging policies identified at the Action Plan is "Reinvigorating a Spanish cooperation at the service of the SDGs". In this sense, Spanish Cooperation is committed to strengthening partnerships and associations with the different stakeholders involved in achieving the SDGs.

- In Japan, various options to fill in the financing gap to achieve the SDGs by 2030 are being explored. Furthermore, Japan has led and hopes to continue promoting international efforts in this area as chair of the Leading Group on Innovative Financing for Development.

6. Regarding their respective domestic processes, what are the take-aways from this exchange for participating countries?

* Argentina: horizontal and vertical policy coherence is still a big challenge in federal countries like Argentina. The VPLM round generate several take-aways for the country, among which stand out: not disregard awareness and ownership strategies of the Agenda; develop specific strategies to support SDGs for different levels of government taking into account their particular means of implementation (Provinces, Municipalities); the need to pay special attention to the differences in territoriality (land and cities).

    * Lessons from Japan: based on the success of the Japanese SDGs Award, the National Council of Social Polices is working with the Ministry of Interior to include issues related to the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs in the "Results-based management in Local Governments" report.

    * Lessons from Spain: to measure the contributions to the Agenda at a global level, the Spanish government aligned its Spanish Cooperation's Country Partnership Framework with the 2030 Agenda. In this regard, Argentina is exploring to further align the Argentine Fund for South-South and Triangular Cooperation initiatives at a SDG's target level.

* Japan: the primary method used by Japan to involve various stakeholders including local authorities and the private sector to make progress in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda is mainly to introduce incentives to encourage voluntary action. However, challenges still remain, and there were several take-aways for Japan in the VPLM process such as the ones mentioned below:

    * Lessons from Spain: in order to provide accountability and promote the 2030 Agenda from various directions, the involvement of the parliaments, i.e. the Spanish Parliament's accountability mechanism proved to be useful.

* Lessons from Argentina: the method used by the Argentine National Council, which is to create cooperation agreements with subnational governments, civil society, academia and other stakeholders to promote their engagement was successful in opening the way to explore new possibilities to coordinate with local governments and stakeholders outside of the government. Spain: given the high level of administrative decentralization of the country, achievement of vertical cooperation and coherence is Spain's major challenge: many public policies, such as health care and education, depend on regional and local authorities; and some sub-national administrations have their own process and strategies to implement the 2030 Agenda. That is why Spain is giving such importance to the localization of SDGs, and why it is so interested in the experience of both participating countries in this field:

    * Lessons from Argentina: due to the steps Argentina has taken, as a federal country, to enhance coherence through the signature of an agreement between National Government Provinces, as well as the setting of Provincial Objectives.

    * Lessons from Japan: as the second pillar of their 2018 Action Plan is devoted to the Localization of SDGs, and how Government ministries support the efforts of local governments through measure to promote partnership among various stakeholders in achieving the SDGs. Moreover, according to the SDGs Action Plan 2019, Japan will also promote regional vitalization through the promotion of SDGs in local areas.

    * Cities and regions are more and more engaged in the preparation of Voluntary Local Reviews. New York City and Kitakyushu prepared them last year, the Basque Country and others this year. The OECD is supporting 9 pilots on localizing the SDGs (https://www.oecd.org/cfe/territorial-approach-sdgs.htm) that could support on-going and future Voluntary Local Reviews as well as the G20 VPLM.

7. To which extent did this peer learning round add value to the implementation of the G20 Action Plan on the 2030 Agenda?

The VPLM is one of the commitments set up at the Hamburg Update (2017), and at the Buenos Aires Update (2018) after the success of the 1st round of the VPLM. This mechanism has shown to be an important asset for G20 members to learn from experiences of other countries, and to better support and implement the 2030 Agenda at national levels as well as global level. During this VPLM exchange it was identified that, even if the three countries had different contexts and different ways to implementing the 2030 Agenda, they had similar challenges and shared common aspects in terms of governance and process. And the three countries share a common understanding of the importance of the 2030 Agenda as an overarching framework.

VPLM has proven to be a powerful tool, not only as an instance to share knowledge, but also to generate networks that exceed VPLM meetings and contribute to put concrete ideas and policies with positive impact on SDGs into practice.

In terms of communication with other non-G20 countries, the exercise of the VPLM could also be useful to detect common challenges among countries, and identify different solutions, knowledge as well as good practices to solve them.

Moreover, the following issues also emerged from discussions taken at this VPLM round:

- Localization of SDGs and how to involve and engage with sub-national levels and achieve vertical policy coherence. Participating countries agreed on the importance of sharing experiences on approaches to embed SDGs in policies at local level an in the multi-level governance arrangements and to explore the role of cities in international cooperation for sustainable development.

- Civil Society Organizations engagement: how best to engage and communicate to receive inputs in the design and implementation of national SDGs strategies and to promote independent monitoring of such implementation.

- Private sector and regulation: how to adequately align private sector action with the SDGs, considering the role of regulations and incentives to facilitate better integration of sustainable development in companies' core objectives, including the development of more human-centered business models.

- Monitoring and evaluation: how to measure impact and enhance accountability, including and beyond the availability of accurate data and multi-dimensional indicators of well-being.

8. What went well in this peer learning round, and what could be improved in future rounds?

The VPLM are proved to be a complementary action towards the Voluntary National Reviews of the HLPF. The fact of conducting a peer learning process among a small group of countries - only three countries - facilitates the identification of common challenges and gaps as well as sharing lessons learnt, national experiences and potential solutions. Conducting peer learning processes also implies a self-analysis and internal reflection. The participation and exchange with international organizations providing direct technical support has also proved to be very valuable. The VPLM also allowed engaging representatives from various national administrations, beyond those directly involved in the G20 DWG, thereby contributing to the G20 objective of mainstreaming and aligning the 2030 Agenda across policy domains.

In contrast, time constraints have been determinant during this round of the VPLM. More time at meetings for discussions and delivering each country presentations would have been desirable. In addition, physical meetings are considered to be more suitable for a fluent and direct discussion, although it is acknowledged the difficulties to schedule and find opportunities for the arrangements of these meetings. In addition, as this round of the VLPM had to be shorter in order to show results at the G20 Leaders' Summit in June 2019, the possibilities to organize physic meetings were limited.

For future rounds, it would be useful to identify in the VPLM collective elements that should be reinforced at other G20 Working Groups for moving ahead on the 2030 Agenda. Participation of non G20 countries, at least as observers, in a VPLM+, may help share experiences, challenges and lessons learned more broadly and reach out on this very productive process.

Lessons learnt and experiences shared during the whole VPLM exercise could be collected in a single document. Participating countries agreed that it might be very valuable for G20 countries to continue addressing the issue of vertical and horizontal coherence of the Agenda. The OECD analysis of country experiences with Centers of Government and various governance tools to enhance SDG implementation could be a useful example to consider. Additionally, as many discussions on how to implement 2030 Agenda have been already taken, future VPLM rounds could be focused on specific topics or themes, such as, e.g.: the role of private sector and regulation processes; engagement with/of local authorities and different stakeholders for localizing the SDGs; urban/rural cohesion; or carbon transition and renewable energies. This will allow more in-depth technical discussions as well as the involvement of experts and other stakeholders.

Policy Brief by Argentina, European Union, Indonesia and The Netherlands on the results of the 2nd round of the Voluntary Peer Learning Mechanism on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

1) Cooperation to enhance the monitoring and evaluation process of the 2030 Agenda

Executive Summary

In this peer-learning round, Argentina, the European Union, Indonesia and The Netherlands discussed challenges and shared approaches towards developing robust monitoring and evaluation systems to measure progress, as well as efforts to align budgets with the SDGs.

1. Which specific policy and institutional challenges were addressed through this peer learning round?

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) enjoy a shared commitment and require action by all countries and stakeholders. Translating the global agenda into action to deliver impact remains a challenge. For governments and governing entities, developing robust monitoring and evaluation systems to measure progress and aligning budgets with the SDGs to ensure adequate funding are important implementation steps. In this peer-learning round, Argentina, the European Union, Indonesia and The Netherlands discussed these challenges and shared their approaches in response to two questions:

1. How to translate global SDG-indicators to the national level?

2. How can national budgets be aligned with the SDGs?

2. Which approaches / solutions were shared by which countries? (*)

SDG-indicators

Argentina explained the role of their inter-institutional commission (including 26 ministries and national organizations). They lead a thorough process that resulted in more than 200 indicators for measuring the progress of prioritized targets. The European Union adopted a set of EU SDG indicators connected to targets in EU-level policies and since 2017 Eurostat publishes an annual EU SDG monitoring report and a digital publication called the SDGs and me, to make the SDG progress more accessible to the public. Indonesia shared lessons about mainstreaming the SDGs into national development plans, which requires stakeholders taking ownership of the agenda. The Netherlandsis integrating its statistical SDG-measurement into regular reporting on broad well-being, that includes social, environmental and governance aspects.

Budgets

Argentina first identified which existing policies affected national SDG-progress, showing where gaps existed. This allowed for further alignment of budgets with the SDGs. The EU is mainstreaming SDGs in its European policy framework (EU internal and external policies) and this will be reflected in the next multi-annual financial framework (2021-2027) which is still being negotiated by the EU institutions. Moreover, reporting tools are being updated to align with the SDGs. Indonesia has aligned the SDG National Action Plan to the national budget and is working on improving domestic resource mobilization. In The Netherlands, the SDGs are already part of the budget monitoring cycle through an annual report on SDG-progress that is sent to Parliament. Policy planning agencies are working on projecting SDG-progress in the future, which will feed discussions on further integrating the SDGs into the budget planning cycle as well.

3. What are the key success factors of these approaches / solutions?

All participants underline the importance of adequate monitoring of progress towards achieving the SDGs. Cooperation with relevant statistical agencies is a key component of a robust monitoring framework. A shared principle is that SDG targets and indicators should be connected to existing targets in national/subnational policies.

Aligning the SDGs in budgets requires adequate interdepartmental coordination at sufficient level, e.g. at political level or by the National Planning Agency. The SDGs require balanced budgeting. Domestic resources are key to deliver progress.

4. How can failure be avoided?

In the monitoring of SDGs, lack of quantity and quality of data remains a challenge. Subnational governments are often in charge of policies on for example health and education. Therefore technical assistance to the local governments on improving monitoring of and the alignment to the SDGs is usually a welcome support. Both for monitoring and for budgeting, it is important to get the relevant departments and stakeholders on board and ensure effective coordination to divide responsibilities and follow up.

5. How can we support low-income countries in implementing the 2030 Agenda?

This element of the peer-learning focused some members on internal process for SDG- implementation, although in the case of the EU mainstreaming of SDGs in its development cooperation policy is already advanced by adoption in 2017 of the European Consensus od Development and the EU programmes to support LIC for the next period 2021-2027 are being designed on the basis of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs

6. Regarding their respective domestic processes, what are the take-aways from this exchange for participating countries?

Participants are working on further improving data availability for the SDGs by collecting data for newly developed national indicators. Some participants are working on better disaggregation and localization of SDG-data to improve the level of detail available for policy makers. The first steps in translating the SDG-indicators to the relevant national or regional levels allow for setting up strategies or roadmaps for future action.

Aligning budgets with the SDGs is a longer-term process that requires involvement of various line ministries or developing a new financial framework. One participant explained that they are working on further aligning specific budgets to intermediate and end-goals. Another participant stressed the importance of increasing government revenues and improving alternative financing mechanisms for sustainable development.

7. To which extent did this peer learning round add value to the implementation of the G20 Action Plan on the 2030 Agenda?

G20 members and many other stakeholders are working towards achieving the SDGs. Setting up robust monitoring processes and further aligning the 2030 agenda to relevant budgets are important steps. This peer-learning round demonstrates different approaches that could serve as inspiration for not only for other G20 governments and involved entities, but also a wider group of stakeholders. Engaging stakeholders is a core element of the G20 Action Plan on the 2030 Agenda.

While each country faces specific challenges in implementing the SDGs, setting up processes for monitoring and aligning budgets with the SDGs contain similar elements for all G20 members. Due to its diverse membership, peer-learning among G20-members provides an opportunity to learn from others in a different context. For example, some members have experience with implementing the Millennium Development Goals and can provide lessons learned that are useful for implementing the SDGs.

8. What went well in this peer learning round, and what could be improved in future rounds?

G20 members face challenges in monitoring of and budgeting for the SDGs. The peer-learning exercise proved useful in sharing experiences on possible approaches to overcome these challenges. The lessons learned could be useful for non-G20 members as well. In future rounds, the content of the exchanges might be improved through limiting the group size, allowing more time for discussion of content.

2) Triangular Cooperation and the 2030 Agenda

Executive Summary

The peer learning under the topic Triangular Cooperation and the 2030 Agenda was carried out by Argentina, Indonesia, The Netherlands and the European Union, but also included Brazil, South Africa and the OECD as observers. There was common understanding that triangular cooperation can play an important role in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and speed up the achievement of the SDGs. Increasingly extensive experience on the use of this tool has highlighted a number of advantages and success factors, although it also presents some challenges that should be addressed. In this context, there is growing interest on the development of guidelines for the use of this tool. By pursuing the promotion of triangular cooperation including the exchange of best practices, G20 can contribute to enhance dialogue and cooperation between G20 members and non-G20 members that can result in future partnerships.

1. Which specific policy and institutional challenges were addressed through this peer learning round?

The peer learning on triangular cooperation aimed to provide an exchange of experiences on triangular cooperation programmes and initiatives, address its main advantages and challenges when compared with traditional forms cooperation, assess whether rules or guidelines have been developed for its use and finally what is the contribution of triangular cooperation to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and for G20 outreach to non-G20 developing countries.

2. Which approaches / solutions were shared by which countries?

Argentina established a Fund for South-South and Triangular Cooperation (FOAR), which has more than 185 active projects in 39 countries and aims to generate development partnerships, promote exchange of knowledge, technologies and god practices, as well as promote technologies with a focus on technical assistance processes in order to maximise human and financial resources. Brazil launched projects in partnership with more than 10 countries, UN agencies, academia and the private sector, benefiting more than 40 partner countries and focusing on agriculture and food security, environment/natural resources, health, energy, decent work, etc. Indonesia launched programmes on South-South and triangular cooperation with different partners including civil society, academia and the private sector on agriculture, health/family planning, artificial insemination, vocational education, DRR and conflict prevention. The Netherlands developed cooperation programmes in a trilateral setting with other stakeholders, such as youth and the private sector in sectors such as agriculture and trade. The EU supported triangular cooperation programmes in Latin America, Asia and Africa, such as EUROSOCIAL (peer learning on public policy and social cohesion), the ADELANTE facility for triangular cooperation for Latin America, the E-READI programme (support to ASEAN regional integration) and the PALOP-TL SAI project (peer learning on Public Finance Management)

3. What are the key success factors of these approaches / solutions?

Triangular cooperation promotes change from traditional bilateral cooperation and top down approach towards developing partnerships and closer relationships and connections between countries in different continents that fosters joint work on addressing global or common problems. It provides a tool to continue engaging on development cooperation between traditional donors and countries recently graduated from ODA. It allows sharing experiences and combine diverse but complementary expertise that enhances collaboration among experts, brings benefits to the institutions and organisations participating in its programmes. Moreover, it has the potential for strengthen partner's capacity, while building trust and learning, strengthening networks and increasing cultural understanding.

4. How can failure be avoided?

Increased number of partners can add complexity and entail a risk of fragmentation. That raises the need of political willingness, Government leadership, improved political dialogue, concrete commitment from all partners, good coordination and planning, which requires enhanced capacity from participating partners. The involvement of civil society and the private sector remains a challenge that should be addressed, as they are key stakeholders for 2030 Agenda implementation. It is also important that the goals of the partnership are well defined and that there is focus on results and more attention on monitoring and evaluation, which requires strengthen cooperation on collecting and monitoring data/statistics

5. How can we support low-income countries in implementing the 2030 Agenda?

Due to the extensive and diversified experience of G20 members with triangular cooperation, G20 can help disseminating best practices and exchanging experiences in triangular cooperation initiatives, helping developing countries, notably LIC, accessing a full range technical, policy and political expertise and experience from other countries that have achieved progress in addressing similar challenges. That can lead to joint cooperation programmes between G20 members and non- G20 members, especially those facing major difficulties on implementing SDGS, due to the lack the structures, data and statistics for monitoring its achievement.

6. Regarding their respective domestic processes, what are the take-aways from this exchange for participating countries?

While there is a clear benefit for the participating countries and organisations on the exchange of different experiences on triangular cooperation that they could replicate internally on the use of this tool, there was an interest on specific issues and challenges in the use of this tool that would deserve further attention. For instance, as regards the development of guidelines or policy guidance for the use of triangular cooperation, how to better engage civil society and the private sectors, how triangular cooperation can be used to replicate experiences on monitoring and evaluation of the 2030 Agenda but also the monitoring and evaluation process of triangular cooperation itself.

7. To which extent did this peer learning round add value to the implementation of the G20 Action Plan on the 2030 Agenda?

The Buenos Aires Communique acknowledged that triangular cooperation has an important role for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. That follows the recognition in the G20 Action Plan on its

relevance for implementing effective and targeted capacity-building in developing countries to achieve all the SDGs. The peer learning on this topic complemented the exchange of experiences provided by the two workshops organised on this topic by the Argentina and Japanese presidencies as it allowed a more detailed presentation on frameworks and programmes using this approach, acknowledged common views on its advantages and challenges and its contribution to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda as well as on specific issues that would deserve further attention. It was also recognised that exchanging best practices and promoting triangular cooperation can be a means to enhance the dialogue and cooperation between G20 and non-G20 members and lead to future cooperation programmes using this tool. As triangular cooperation is an evolving tool, there may be some benefit on pursuing the exchanges and discussions beyond the work of this specific peer learning round, either by pursuing the practice of holding a workshop on this topic or pursuing the exchange of experiences and best practices in a wider context.

8. What went well in this peer learning round, and what could be improved in future rounds?

This peer learning contributed to a useful exchange of information and experiences on the use of the triangular cooperation in a wider geographic context and in spite of the diversity of approaches, there was a convergence of views on its advantages and challenges. It also showed that for some topics there is a benefit for having a wider participation of G20 members rather than limiting it to three participants, notably in the cases where should be encouraged the participation of non-G20 members. It is also important that the peer learning groups are composed though a voluntary initiative of G20 members that previously decided on such composition and the topic to be addressed so that time is not lost with internal discussions on the topics and the process.