Reflection on aviation in the 2016—2018 VNRs
As stipulated in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Member States are encouraged to conduct regular and inclusive State-led and State-driven reviews of progress towards achievement of the SDGs at the national and sub-national levels. These reviews are presented on a yearly basis at the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), which takes place every July at the United Nations in New York. At the 40th Assembly, ICAO presented an analysis showcasing how aviation between 2016 and 2018 has increasingly featured in the National Voluntary Review presented by States at the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. According to this comprehensive analysis of a total of 107 VNRs submitted by 98 UN Member States from 2016 to 2018, the number of VNRs referencing aviation has more than tripled (from 25 per cent to 77 per cent of VNRs). Over the course of three years, 62 out of 98 States referenced aviation in their VNRs – up from 5 States in 2016. This is a testimony to ICAO’s outreach at carefully chosen events, as well as its continuous advocacy with national stakeholders to include aviation as an enabler of sustainable development within their VNR progress reports. ICAO’s work on the SDGs, as well the VNRs analysis, was well received during A40, which adopted a revised resolution on aviation’s contribution towards sustainable development.
