On Tuesday, 3 June 2025, the National Planning Council (NPC) organized the Third National Workshop on Qatar's Fourth Voluntary National Review (VNR) for 2025. The event is part of the country's preparations for its participation in the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), to be held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 14 to 23 July 2025.
The workshop aimed to engage stakeholders from various sectors to review the draft VNR and provide their feedback, ensuring the report is inclusive and credible. This approach reflects a strong commitment to broad national participation and reinforces national ownership of the report.
The workshop brought together representatives from government agencies, the private sector, civil society, academia, and international and regional organizations, along with experts from the National Planning Council. It marked a key milestone in the report's preparation, as it focused on reviewing the narrative for each Sustainable Development Goal, updating relevant data, and incorporating success stories, challenges, and lessons learned in preparation for the final version.
The workshop adopted an interactive mechanism by sharing the full draft report with stakeholders for their review, enabling them to provide direct and live input. This ensured transparency throughout the process.
In this context, Mr. Ahmed Khalid Al Sumaiti, Director of International Indicators and International cooperation department at the National Planning Council, stated: “This workshop marks the culmination of a series of national consultations initiated earlier this year to strengthen partnerships across all institutions and ensure that the VNR genuinely reflects the diverse voices of the State of Qatar. The commitment demonstrated today by the participants exemplifies the profound spirit of national cooperation and a shared determination to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
The first and second workshops focused on establishing the overarching framework of the report and reviewing the relevant technical data and sectoral studies. In contrast, the third workshop served as a comprehensive platform for the final review and the integration of stakeholder feedback, in preparation for submitting the final version of the report on 17 June 2025.
The VNR Preparation process involves the formation of an internal working group and technical teams, the development of a roadmap, and the clear delineation of roles and responsibilities among team members. It further encompasses updating the Sustainable Development Goals indicators and collecting the necessary data and statistics.
The VNRs serve as the primary mechanism for assessing the progress made by countries toward achieving the SDGs at the national level and then conveying the outcomes to regional and global organizations. Governments are committed to systematically and voluntarily tracking and reviewing the implementation of the 2030 Agenda at the national level, following a robust, participatory, transparent, effective, and integrated framework.
It is worth noting that the State of Qatar had previously prepared three VNRs: the first in 2017, the second in 2018, and the third in 2021. These VNRs highlight the progress made in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which comprises 17 goals, 169 targets and 248 indicators. They also showcase multiple national efforts in achieving comprehensive sustainable development and Qatar National Vision 2030.
