AGENDA 2030 IMPLEMENTATION
Tuesday, 18 August 2020
Ireland has adopted a whole-of-government approach to SDG implementation, with each Minister having specific responsibility for implementing individual SDG targets related to their Ministerial functions. The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications has responsibility for promoting the SDGs, and for overseeing their coherent implementation across Government.
Ireland’s Second National Implementation Plan for the Sustainable Development Goals sets out five strategic objectives and 51 actions, with 119 individual measures. The plan was developed in collaboration with all Government Departments, key stakeholders, and based on input from two public consultation processes held over the last year.
The Plan also contains 22 case studies to showcase some of the valuable initiatives and examples of best practice projects and programmes being progressed by a variety of organisations, institutions and sectors across the country.
Strategic Objectives:
1. To embed the SDG framework into the work of Government Departments to achieve greater Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development
The Plan aims to build capacity, raise the profile of the SDGs, better mainstream Agenda 2030 across Government Departments and enhance cooperation and coordination between national policy makers.
2. To integrate the SDGs into Local Authority work to better support the localisation of the SDGs
The Plan aims to raise capacity and build on the role of local government in respect of the SDGs, including embedding the SDGs in governance, reporting and local planning frameworks and through community engagement.
3. Greater partnerships for the Goals
Reflecting the fact that the SDGs belong to everybody, the Plan includes a substantial new chapter relating to sectoral stakeholder engagement and identifying opportunities for greater partnerships. It is intended that this chapter and the groups included therein will be further developed in subsequent iterations of this Implementation Plan.
4. To further incorporate the principle of Leave No One Behind into Ireland’s Agenda 2030 implementation and reporting mechanisms
A commitment given in the 2022-2024 National Implementation Plan is to open a collaborative and inclusive dialogue to explore the concept of Leave No One Behind and what it means in an Irish context. This will form the focus for discussion at the next SDG National Stakeholder Forum meeting.
5. Strong reporting mechanisms
The Plan includes actions to introduce robust reporting mechanisms to monitor progress on the SDGs and SDG targets as well as on the status of the actions set out in the Plan.
Overall political oversight for national SDG implementation is provided through the Cabinet, with each Government Minister having specific responsibility for implementing individual SDG targets related to their Ministerial functions. For this reason, each of the 169 SDG targets has been assigned to a lead Government Department. The choice to assign Ministerial responsibility for each target was taken to ensure that individual Departments take ownership of those SDGs most relevant to their work and to provide additional clarity to stakeholders.
All ministries are involved.
Department of Environment, Climate and Communications
- Fiona McManus (SDGs@decc.gov.ie)
- Aisling Kirwan (SDGs@decc.gov.ie);and
- Anna Marie Gaines (SDGs@decc.gov.ie)
Ireland submitted its first Voluntary National Review in 2018.
Ireland submitted its second Voluntary National Review in 2023.