The Netherlands

In the Netherlands, SDG activities are coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There are SDG Focal Points at all Dutch Ministries, but the coordination of SDG action lies with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Increasingly, other Ministries are being involved with SDG implementation.

Annually, the status of Dutch SDG implementation is analyzed by one of the most renowned statistics bureaus in the Netherlands. For the annual SDG report Dutch civil society is also consulted and has room (two pages) to add their feedback. The civil society input is managed by the core team of Building Change.

‘Building Change: Global Goals at Home and Abroad’ is a project of Partos, Foundation Max van der Stoel and Woord en Daad. The Building Change team collaborates to advocate for policy coherence for development. The SDGs are crucial in achieving this, so they envision a fair and ambitious implementation of the SDGs, led by a positive, engaging government. To collectively bring a strong message to the government and politicians in The Hague, Building Change collaborates with a large coalition of NGOs working in the sustainability and development sectors.

One big achievement from 2019 was the launch of the so-called ‘SDG test’. This ‘test’ is an addition to Dutch policy making processes. Policy makers are asked to include an analysis of the effects of their new policy and law proposals on SDG implementation, developing countries and gender. This is an important step for strengthening Dutch policy coherence for development and Dutch SDG action.

While ‘Building Change’ bridges the gap between Dutch national politics and civil society when it comes to the SDGs, the ‘SDG Charter’ has built a bottom-up movement of business, civil society and local governments to enhance collaboration for SDG Action. On a local level, municipalities are also increasingly engaging with the SDGs. The title of ‘Global Goals Municipality’ is awarded to municipalities that are actively contributing to SDG Action.