The 2019 to 2022 Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS) presents the Government of Canada’s sustainable development goals and targets, as required by the Federal Sustainable Development Act. In keeping with the purpose of this Act to provide the legal framework for developing and implementing a Federal Sustainable Development Strategy that will make environmental decision-making more transparent and accountable to Parliament, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) supports the goals laid out in the FSDS through the activities described in this Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy (DSDS).

The 2019 to 2022 Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS) presents the Government of Canada’s sustainable development goals and targets, as required by the Federal Sustainable Development Act. In keeping with the purpose of this Act to provide the legal framework for developing and implementing a Federal Sustainable Development Strategy that will make environmental decision-making more transparent and accountable to Parliament, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) supports the goals laid out in the FSDS through the activities described in this Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy (DSDS).

Restoring and accelerating SDG progress requires financing (see Part 1), data and statistics (see Parts 2 and 4) and sound and ambitious SDG policies and roadmaps. To operationalize the 17 SDGs and 169 targets, SDSN and partners promote six SDG Transformations that must be implemented in parallel and adapted to local contexts. These include quality education (SDG 4); access to good quality and affordable health care (SDG 3); renewable energy and a circular economy (SDGs 7, 12, and 13); sustainable land and marine management (SDGs 2, 14, and 15); sustainable urban infrastructure (SDGs 6, 9, and 11); and universal access to digital services (SDG 9). Scientific knowledge and networks are key to model structural changes over a time horizon of 10–30 years, which can inform policy discussions and consultations on the six SDG transformations.This section discusses efforts made by governments (primarily the executive branch) to integrate the SDGs into public policies. The SDG Index and Dashboards focus on internationally standardized outcome statistics. Due to data gaps and time lags in international reporting, national policies and commitments must also be considered in gauging a country’s efforts to achieve the SDGs. We present an assessment of governments’ efforts to achieve the SDGs, including the 2022 SDSN Policy Coordination Survey for the SDGs and the Six Transformations Scorecards. For the first time, we also present prototype scores of government commitments and efforts in support of the SDGs.Six years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs in 2015, a majority of governments had by 2021 developed strategies and action plans to implement the goals. For many governments, this takes the form of a national sustainability strategy that is explicitly linked to the 2030 Agenda goals and targets. Some governments though have preferred to take a mainstreaming approach, whereby the SDGs are implemented by each government ministry within the scope of its mandate (instead of via an overarching national action plan). Our survey is unable to evaluate, in practice, political and administrative support for the implementation of these strategies, although SDSN has published a detailed analysis of SDG integration in recovery and resilience plans within the European Union (Lafortune et al., 2021).Regarding SDG coordination units and mechanisms: we find that most countries have appointed a lead unit or agency responsible for coordinating implementation of the SDGs (Figure 3.1). Yet less than a third of the countries surveyed have located this unit at the center of government (offices of the President or Prime Minister, or cabinet offices).Figure 3.1 | Designated lead unit for SDG coordination, at the central/federal level of governmentNote: SDSN 2022 Survey on national coordination and implementation mechanisms at the central/federal level of government (February 2022)Many countries have also developed strategies for SDG monitoring. 46 out of the 61 governments covered in the survey have adapted the SDG framework to their context and identified a set of nationally relevant indicators. On average, such national sets comprise around 135 indicators. Several countries have also developed online platforms to report on progress towards the SDGs. These efforts to strengthen mechanisms to monitor sustainable development are critical to inform SDG interventions. Challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic also sparked new innovations in monitoring and data collection, which are discussed in Part 4.Official speeches and government efforts to prepare voluntary national reviews (VNRs) are also relevant proxy measures to gauge commitment to the SDGs. Over the past 12 months, just over half of the surveyed countries have reinforced their commitment to the SDGs in the context of an official speech or statement made by the head of state (president or prime minister). Since 2016, 187 UN Member States have prepared VNRs – the official government-led process to report on SDG progress, gaps, and policy efforts (see Figure 3.2). This year, 45 countries have committed to submitting a VNR, which is comparable to the pre-pandemic period. But while some countries are preparing their fourth VNR, six countries have still never submitted one – Haiti, Iran, Myanmar, South Sudan, the United States, and Yemen (UN, 2022b).Figure 3.2 | Submissions of voluntary national reviews (number of countries)Note: Data includes VNRs that will be submitted by countries this year.Source: Authors' analysis. Based on data from the United Nations (2022).As in previous years, there is some discrepancy between expressed political support for the SDGs and integration of the goals into strategic public policy processes, most notably national budgets. About a third of the governments surveyed (21 out of 61) mention the SDGs or use related terms in their latest official budget document – no improvement over last year. And only half of these include the SDGs in a dedicated section of their national budgets or in a dedicated budget line. The other half refer to the SDGs only in the general narrative, providing less SDG-specific budget allocations. Several countries surveyed do specifically refer to the SDGs in their national budget to support both domestic SDG implementation (including national health, education, social protection, or economic development reforms) and SDG implementation abroad (for example, aid allocation or foreign policy).This discrepancy is evident also in COVID-19 recovery plans. Among the 44 countries with national recovery plans in place, we found that most (26) do not refer to the SDGs at all. Only 9 have a COVID-19 recovery plan in which the SDGs form a central pillar to guide a sustainable, inclusive, and resilient recovery. This aligns with some of the findings from green recovery policy trackers (Green Economy Tracker, 2022; O’Callaghan et al., 2022; Vivid Economics, 2021; Wuppertal Institut and E3G, 2021). As countries work to recover from the pandemic, it is important to maintain – and increase – the focus on achieving the long-term goals agreed by the international community in 2015, including the SDGs, the 2030 Agenda, and the Paris Climate Agreement.As shown in Figure 3.3, G20 countries are on average less ambitious than others when it comes to integrating the SDGs into key policy processes. Particularly with regards to linking budgets to the goals and developing national SDG indicator sets, G20 countries lag behind. As G20 countries represent two-thirds of the world’s population and 85 percent of global GDP, integrating the SDGs into their governance systems is particularly important.Figure 3.3 | Integration of the SDGs into key policy processes, G20 countries versus other countriesNote: Percentage of countries where Table 3.1 shows a “yes” for the respective question. For COVID-19 recovery plans: Percentage of countries where Table 3.1 shows a “yes” out of the number of countries that have adopted a recovery plan.Source: Authors' analysis. Based on SDSN 2022 Survey on national coordination and implementation mechanisms at the central/federal level of government (February 2022)Besides the executive branch of government, parliamentary committees and groups promoting SDG action have also emerged over the years. For instance, the SDG Alliance is an informal group of European Parliament Members from different committees and political groups who are mobilized around the SDGs. In France in 2022, a Member of Parliament put together a comprehensive assessment of the country’s SDG gaps and priorities (Provendier, 2022). Public participation processes at various levels (including regions and cities), whether organized through national legislature, citizen assemblies, or councils, can also help to identify better policy interventions, build legitimacy, and strengthen ownership of SDG actions.Figure 3.4 | National government efforts to implement the SDGs

This review of the 2021 Progress Report on the 2019 to 2022 Federal Sustainable Development Strategy includes an assessment of the fairness of the information used to track progress against targets, contextual indicators, short-term milestones, and key priorities that are contained in the progress report and are related to the federal strategy’s 13 goals.

The 2022 to 2026 Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS) presents the Government of Canada’s sustainable development goals and targets, as required by the Federal Sustainable Development Act. In keeping with the purpose of this Act to provide the legal framework for developing and implementing a FSDS that will make decision making related to sustainable development more transparent and subject to accountability to Parliament, the Department of Justice supports the goals laid out in the FSDS through the activities described in the Justice Sustainable Development Strategy (JSDS). The Department recognises that sustainable development – social and economic sustainability, as well as environmental sustainability – contributes to the Department’s ability to achieve its strategic outcomes. To this end, Justice Canada’s vision for sustainable development is the integration of sustainable development – in its broadest terms – with departmental objectives, needs and practices. The JSDS 2023 to 2027 plays an integral role in achieving Justice Canada’s vision for sustainable development. In the JSDS 2023 to 2027, Justice Canada sets out fifteen departmental actions that support the priorities, targets and implementation strategies of the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS) 2022 to 2026 – including those to support FSDS Goals.

This audit will focus on whether National Defence, Parks Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the Canada Border Services Agency contributed to meeting the target of zero-emission vehicles in the federal administrative fleet under the Greening Government goal in the 2019–2022 Federal Sustainable Development Strategy and target 12.7 to promote public procurement practices that are sustainable under the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), as applicable to each entity.