National Strategy / Action Plan

There is no National Strategy / Action Plan in Sweden

Lead Government Body

national ESC(s)

There is no national ESC in Sweden

SD council or equivalent

Performance

There is no Performance in Sweden

Summary

  • Sweden has led the EU in making progress towards the SDGs in the past two years and sees Agenda 2030 as a cross-governmental priority, appointing a dedicated commission to monitor implementation and represent Sweden at the HLPF, which is currently under re-organisation.
  • Civil society was consulted regularly when drawing up the implementation plan and continues to be engaged informally by line ministries.
  • Sweden presented its VNR at the 2017 HLPF and has approved a National Action Plan in summer 2018.

Description of the initiative

    Actors

    Lead government body
    Supporting government bodies
    National Economic and Social Council
    Sustainable Development Council
    Supporting government bodies text

    Inter-Ministerial working group for Agenda 2030

    nESC text

    Sweden has no nESC

    Institutional framework

    Lead and supporting government bodies

    Coordination of Agenda 2030 is shared between the Ministry of Finance (internal) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (external), which were supported until march 2019 by a dedicated Agenda 2030 commission composed of civil society representatives

    Strategic framework

    The Swedish government has big ambitions and all ministers are responsible for implementation, with SDGs to be integrated in all policy areas.

    The Agenda 2030 delegation produced a draft National Action Plan for implementation in June 2017, entitled 'Towards sustainable welfare'

    This action plan has a particular focus on the younger generation, and underlines ongoing broad dialogue with all stakeholders. Based on mapping the national situation, six priority areas were identified:

    • Equal society
    • Sustainable cities
    • Circular economy and societal benefit
    • Strong business sector and sustainable business models
    • Sustainable and healthy food
    • Increased knowledge and innovation

    The National Action Plan was approved in summer 2018.

    Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals

    The Swedish government is strongly committed to implementing the SDGs; it has appointed the Public Administration Minister, with a position at the Ministry of Finance, as coordinator.

    The aforementioned National Action Plan was developed in collaboration with all line ministries and was approved in summer 2018.

    The Swedish Government is constantly producing reports on the implementation of the SDGs in different areas and last year it presented five implementations briefs to the HLPF.

    Role of civil society

    Involvement in implementation of Sustainable Development Goals

    The Swedish government has already engaged organised civil society, the private sector and central, regional and local authorities during the negotiations on Agenda 2030, where stakeholder representatives also formed part of the Swedish delegation.

    Further engagement with academia through the 'Scientific Council for Sustainable Development', which is a multidisciplinary panel of scientists.

    Civil society platform for 2030

    60+ Swedish companies are members of UN Global Compact Nordics and have set up a working group that aims to establish a national GC by summer 2018;

    SDSN Nordics also has 38 Swedish members across academia and CSO

    CONCORD

    SD council or equivalent

    Tasks

    Proposing a comprehensive Agenda 2030 action plan to the government;

    Promoting the dissemination of information and knowledge regarding SDGs;

    Anchoring Agenda 2030 through broad dialogue with the social partners.

    Organisation

    The delegation consisted of twelve members with a broad competence and experience of work on issues related to, inter alia, human rights, CSR, culture, climate and environment, municipalities, authorities, business, civil society and research.

    The Agenda 2030 delegation is provided with administrative support by seven civil servants in the Government office.

    Activities

    The Agenda 2030 delegation's schedule of activities is as follows:

    Monitoring & Evaluation

    Performance

    UN SDSN SDG Index Country Profile

    Sweden ranks 2nd in the SDG global ranking of 2019.

    Indicators

    Statistical follow-up on Agenda 2030 is a report produced by Statistics Sweden at the government's request on how a statistical analysis of the implementation of SDGs could be achieved. The report includes suggestions on how to make the follow-up more comprehensive in covering all SDG areas.

    In the National Action Plan, Statistics Sweden was tasked with setting up a national monitoring system by coordinating the development and production of statistics on Sweden's implementation of the 2030 Agenda, and making these statistics available.

    Voluntary National Report

    Sweden is committed to being a leader in implementing Agenda 2030 – both at home and globally. The report has been produced through broad consultation using documentation and contributions from a large number of stakeholders in a variety of reference groups.

    The Swedish government considers broad ownership for Agenda 2030 among all actors in society fundamental to implementation.

    The aim is to develop partnership-driven processes with innovative thinking about strategic and operational steering. A number of stakeholder platforms have been created with and between the private sector, social partners, civil society, the research community and municipalities.

    The 2017 VNR clearly shows that the process of making Agenda 2030 an integral part of Government Offices' ordinary operations has commenced.

    Sweden's VNR can be accessed here.