European Economic
and Social Committee
Sweden
National Strategy / Action Plan
There is no National Strategy / Action Plan in Sweden
CSO platform(s)
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
Actors
Inter-Ministerial working group for Agenda 2030
Sweden has no nESC
Inter-Ministerial working group for Agenda 2030
Sweden has no nESC
Institutional framework
Institutional framework
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
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.
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
Role of civil society
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.
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
SD council or equivalent
SD council or equivalent
The Agenda 2030 delegation was established by in March 2016, which described its tasks, responsibilities and gave it a mandate until March 2019. This directive was subsequently amended by Directive 2017:8 to set a more flexible timeline for further consultation with civil society. Its mandate ended in March 2019.
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.
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.
The Agenda 2030 delegation's schedule of activities is as follows:
- 1st interim report submitted to the government November 2016
- Interim report on dissemination published March 2017
- Draft action plan for Agenda 2030 implementation submitted May 2017
- Interim report on Agenda 2030 from March 2018
- Final report on further Agenda 2030 activities published on March 2019
Monitoring & Evaluation
Monitoring & Evaluation
UN SDSN SDG Index Country Profile
Sweden ranks 2nd in the SDG global ranking of 2019.
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.
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.