France

Placed under the authority of the Ministry for Fair and Ecological Transition, the General Commission for Sustainable Development is responsible for the implementation of the SDGs in France. The General Commissioner also acts as inter-ministerial delegate for sustainable development: placed under the authority of the Prime Minister, she is mandated to coordinate the ministries on sustainability-related issues. The commissioner has appointed an inter-ministerial steering committee in charge of developing a roadmap for the implementation of the SDGs. This roadmap is supposed to lay the foundations for a revision of the National Sustainable Development Strategy for 2020-2030.

The full text of the 2030 Agenda is available in French. So far, there is no structured and institutionalised participatory mechanism allowing regular NGO input to the French SDG implementation. Public consultations consist of ad-hoc open meetings organized by the General Commission for Sustainable Development, the Inter-ministerial Committee for International Cooperation and Development, and the National Council for Development and International Solidarity. The inter-ministerial steering committee in charge of the roadmap is also open to civil society: the coming months will attest whether civil society will be able to contribute to the work of the committee on a regular basis. Civil society representatives have been invited to be members of the French delegation to participate in the High Level Political Forum, yet no civil society presentation was delivered at the Voluntary National Review.

So far, no national civil society SDG coalition exists in France. To advocate for SDG implementation, NGOs either conduct individual actions or collective ad-hoc actions. Association 4D and WECF-France are currently working to initiate a coalition on the SDGs in France.

Apart from the French platform of development NGOs and a few other NGOs acting mainly at national level, the SDGs are not highly integrated in the strategies of civil society actors. The private sector communicates on the SDGs, yet it remains to be seen whether the goals will upgrade their corporate social and environmental responsibility strategy.