Tanzanian city of Mwanza launches the country’s first Voluntary Local Review

Mwanza, Tanzania 14 June 2023- The City of Mwanza this week launched Tanzania’s first-ever Voluntary Local Review. The colorful ceremony was attended by local stakeholders, representatives from UN-Habitat, the city of Tampere, Finland, as well as the UN Association of Tanzania and Finland.

With the 2030 Agenda deadline fast approaching, Voluntary Local Reviews have become powerful processes for the acceleration of SDG localization in all its dimensions. These are sustainability reports led by local and regional governments that help to understand where territories stand on SDG implementation. Since 2018, more than 200 VLRs have been published involving over 160 local and regional governments. The exercise got inspiration from the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) developed by national governments.

In his opening remarks, the Lord Mayor of Mwanza City, Sima Constantine Sima, stated, “Our Voluntary Local Review informs us that urgent global issues are mostly felt at the local level (…) As the City of Mwanza is committed to the implementation of the SDGs, we are determined to work out our responsibilities towards 2030 through joint collaboration with national authorities and local stakeholders”.

The report is the result of a twinning partnership between the city of Mwanza and the sister city of Tampere in Finland. Both cities have been collaborating since 1988 on matters such as environment protection, education, fire and rescue services, local finance, and urban planning. This time, they strengthened their exchange of knowledge on SDG localization facilitated by UN-Habitat.

Tampere presented their VLR in 2022, setting a reference for Mwanza. UN-Habitat has provided the methodology and technical support for the process. The collaboration expands to other partners: UN Association of Tanzania and Finland, the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, the Association of Local Authorities Tanzania, and the UN Resident Coordinator Office in Tanzania. This exercise has been supported by the Ministry of Environment of Finland.

Speaking at the function, the Development Manager of the City of Tampere, Sanna Huikuri, stated, “Cities need each other”. She referred to the long history of cooperation, celebrating the results of the VLR launch of the twin city, and reaffirmed that the cooperation should proceed into the implementation phase.

UN-Habitat appreciated the commitment and collaboration in developing the VLR and encouraged the twin cities to keep working together on implementing the recommendations of the VLR.

The Chairperson of the UN Association of Tanzania, Malli Silesi, and the Advocacy Officer from the UN Association of Finland, Jenni Kauppila, gave a joint presentation, highlighting the gender perspective throughout the analysis of the SDGs. Both organizations played a key role in the participation of civil society and communities in the VLR.

The Mayors from Dodoma City Council, Davis G. Mwamfupe, and Tanga City Council, Abdulrahman Shiloo, have expressed commitment in developing VLRs for their own cities.

“We hope that by sharing Mwanza City’s innovations and challenges outlined in the VLR, we will continue to inspire other cities in the country to develop VLRs,” concluded the Lord Mayor of Mwanza.

For more information on the benefits of VLRs and the global repository, visit UN-Habitat’s platform: https://unhabitat.org/topics/voluntary-local-reviews 

Access the VLR of Mwanza online: https://unhabitat.org/sites/default/files/2023/06/mwanza_2023_en.pdf