This handbook has been developed for parliamentarians as a tool to promote parliamentary engagement on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The SDGs were adopted unanimously by United Nations Member States and endorsed by the executive branch of the government of each country. If the goals are to be achieved in any given country, the country’s parliament must play a significant and informed role. The laws needed to create the legal framework for the SDGs will have to be scrutinized and adopted by the parliament. The annual state budget that allocates funding for SDG implementation will need to be passed by the parliament. The parliament must also monitor the implementation of the SDGs by the government to verify that it is appropriate in national and local contexts and parliamentarians must represent their constituents to promote citizen participation in the implementation of the SDGs.
The objective of this handbook is three-fold:
• further inform parliamentarians about the SDGs;
• share examples of how parliaments and parliamentarians can fulfill their roles in implementing the SDGs; and
• offer parliaments and parliamentarians a tool they can use to assess and improve their current capacity for engagement in the achievement of the SDGs.
