The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were affirmed in 2015 at a United Nations Conference called the High-level Political Forum (HLPF). Every subsequent year, this Forum set out to evaluate progress and best practice on the SDGs, which includes “Voluntary National Reviews” by each country that is a Member State of the UN. In the course of 3 years of HLPF meetings (2017/2019), each member state would present at least one VNR.

In order to provide a fuller picture of sustainable development in Canada – one that takes into account our country’s geographic and demographic diversity – BCCIC decided to complete the Where Canada Stands Report Series from the perspective of civil society in Canada.  These reports assesses SDG implementation in Canada through the guiding question: “who is getting left behind?” For each SDG under review, both the national and sub-national contexts were considered through regional analysis and the presentation of case studies. Experts interviewed in these areas represent Indigenous communities, universities, think tanks, NGOs, CSOs, youth, industry, and various levels of government. The case studies were selected to represent a diversity of regions, and to highlight success stories where targets were met and no one was left behind.

Each report reviews the portion of the 17 SDGs that are being focused on at the HLPF (as it would be too much to review every goal every year) – except for SDG 17, which is reviewed every year. The year 2019 marks the end of a review cycle whereby all the goals will have been formally reviewed on a global scale. The next step for the HLPF is the “SDG Summit” in September 2019 alongside the UN General Assembly.