Voluntary Local Reviews (VLR)

What is a VLR?

A Voluntary Local Review (VLR) is a city or subnational government’s self-assessment of its progress toward the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). VLRs are formally encouraged by the United Nations as the local-level counterpart to national Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs).

The platform provides a complete VLR workflow — from data aggregation to final report generation — fully aligned with UN VLR Guidelines 2.0.

Who Uses VLRs?

User Type	Role
City/Municipal Governments	Primary authors of the VLR
Regional Governments	Aggregate across multiple cities
Consortia Administrators	Aggregate data from member organizations into city-level reporting
Platform Super Admins	Oversee multi-city VLR programs

Key Features

Feature	Description
City-Level Aggregation	Automatically aggregate ESGETC data from multiple consortium members into city-level SDG metrics
All 17 SDGs	Comprehensive progress tracking across the full SDG framework
UN Guidelines 2.0 Compliance	Structured reporting aligned with official UN VLR standards
Multi-Stakeholder Tracking	Record engagement across 5+ stakeholder types (government, civil society, private sector, academia, international partners)
LNOB Principle	Built-in tracking for Leave No One Behind — disaggregate data by gender, income, disability, and other equity dimensions
HTML & PDF Reports	Generate professional, UN-compliant reports ready for public disclosure
Multi-Year Comparison	Track SDG progress across reporting cycles
Indicator Management	Baseline → Current → Target workflow for each indicator

Creating a VLR

Step 1: Initialize the VLR

Navigate to Reports → Voluntary Local Reviews → Create New.

Fill in:

City name and Country
Report year (the year being reported on)
Reporting period (e.g., 2020–2025)
Priority SDGs — which SDGs are most relevant to your city (can select all 17)

Step 2: Auto-Aggregate City Data

The platform can automatically aggregate data from all consortium members in your city:

Each consortium member’s ESGETC assessment contributes to the relevant SDG indicators
Data is normalized and de-duplicated across overlapping sources
A data quality score is generated for each indicator

You can also manually enter indicator data or upload from an external data source.

Step 3: Manage SDG Indicators

For each priority SDG, manage indicators using the Baseline → Current → Target workflow:

Set the baseline value (starting point)
Record the current value (this reporting period)
Define the target value (your city’s commitment)

The platform calculates the progress percentage and trend direction automatically.

Step 4: Document Stakeholder Engagement

A credible VLR documents who was involved in the process. For each stakeholder group:

Record engagement activities (consultations, workshops, surveys)
Note the number of participants
Describe how stakeholder input shaped the report

Step 5: Apply LNOB Analysis

For each indicator, flag whether disaggregated data is available:

By gender
By income quintile
By age group
By disability status
By geographic area (urban/rural, neighborhood)

The platform highlights indicators with LNOB data gaps as priorities for improving data collection.

Step 6: Generate the Report

Click Generate Report to produce:

A full HTML report styled for publication on the city website
A PDF version for official submission
An executive summary (2-page overview)
A machine-readable JSON export for UN data repositories

VLR Completeness Score

The platform calculates a completeness percentage for your VLR and identifies gaps:

Indicators with missing data
SDGs with no indicators tracked
Stakeholder groups not represented
Missing LNOB disaggregation

A completeness score of ≥70% is recommended before publishing.

Multi-City & Regional VLRs

For regional governments overseeing multiple cities:

Request the Regional VLR feature from your platform administrator
Each city submits its individual VLR
The regional platform aggregates data across cities
A composite regional report is generated with city-by-city comparisons

Integration with Consortium Data

VLRs are powered by the consortium system. When organizations participate in a consortium, their ESGETC data is automatically tagged with geographic identifiers. The VLR engine uses these tags to pull relevant metrics:

A school’s Social and Governance scores contribute to SDG 4 and 16 indicators
A manufacturer’s Environmental scores contribute to SDG 12 and 13 indicators
A health clinic’s Social scores contribute to SDG 3 indicators

This means cities with active consortium networks can significantly reduce the manual data entry burden for their VLR.