Report and Recommendations from the Regional Consultations on SDGs Localization and Implementation in East and Southern Africa

This report presents a synthesis of a gender and SDGs regional consultation which brought together participants from 11 Member States including Botswana, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. These included representatives from Ministries of Gender; Directors of National Statistical Offices; Regional Economic Communities and Bodies- RECs; Regional Institutions; Select Civil Society Organizations and International NGOs; and UN Officials from United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Multi and Country Offices. It contributed towards building momentum for the High Level Political Forum for 2018 and motivating Member States for Voluntary National Reviews beyond 2018, prioritization of gender statistics and ensuring that no one is left behind in the localization and implementation of SDGs while ensuring that research and data remains critical for generating evidence for monitoring implementation and reporting on SDGs progress. From the consultations, a research agenda was developed based on the SDGs Gap Analysis-replicating UNDP finalized SDG Gap Analysis in Kenya and a possible study on the Role of Community and Citizen-Generated Data as a tool of accelerating localization and implementation of Gender Related SDGs in Africa.