Videos and publications on SDGs and international cooperation in English, French and Spanish

Sustainable Municipality Week

The Sustainable Municipality Week is an initiative of the VVSG, organized each year between 18 and 25 September. Participating municipalities raise the SDG flag and celebrate their heroes for sustainable development. The heroes are local citizens, schools, businesses and associations who contribute to the SDGs in their own way.

Discover the format, roadmap and lessons learned of the Sustainable Municipality Week. 

Découvrez le format, la feuille de route et les leçons apprises de la Semaine de la Municipalité Durable.

Descubra el formato, la hoja de ruta y las lecciones aprendidas de la Semana del Municipio Sostenible.

• Inspirational flyer for foreign municipalities to join the campaign: Why participate? What materials are available (for free) in your language? What kind of creative actions can you do with your twinning partner during Sustainable Municipality Week? Flyer available in English, French and Spanish.
• Videos in English(opent nieuw venster) about the campaign (interviews with participants, compilation of images, calls to participate, ...).
• Campaign materials for international twinning partners of Flemish municipalities
  • campaign image & slogan Sustainable Municipality Week in English, French and Spanish
  • window sticker 'I am a sustainable hero' in English, French and Spanish
  • roll-up banner Sustainable Municipality Week in English, French and Spanish
  • banners for social media in English(opent nieuw venster), French (opent nieuw venster)and Spanish(opent nieuw venster)
  • postcard for kids (to express wishes for a sustainable 2030) in English, French and Spanish
  • postcard for adults (to express wihes for a sustainable 2030)  in English, French and Spanish
  • SDG pole flag in English, French, Spanish and German
  • SDG stick-on tattoo

Local policy planning and implementation

VVSG started its SDG work with a pilot project comprising 20 municipalities. Discover the approach and lessons learned of VVSG SDG pilot project 2017-2019. 

• Making your local policy plan more sustainable through SDGs (February 2025)
• Publication Local Support for Global Challenges - a local translation of the SDGs
• SDG Declaration of Commitment ‘Global Goals Local Focus’ in English, French and Spanish. The declaration was developed at the onset of the 2030 Agenda. In Flanders it has been signed by about 1/3th of the local governments.
• Recommendations to integrate the SDGs into local party manifestos (Publication of 2018. Version of 2024 only available in Dutch.)
• 'Basic Tool' to gain insight into the SDG status of your municipality through a number of specific questions and to accordingly determine what you want to focus on; available in English, French and Spanish
• Guide on SDG monitoring and reporting
• SDG-indicators (quantitative + qualitative) to monitor progress towards the SDGs at the level of Flemish local authorities. Use the Excel document with the local SDG indicators together with the manual. (English version dates from 2018. The update of 2022 is only available in Dutch).
• SDGs in the local context analysis (Publication of 2018. Version of 2023 only available in Dutch.)
• The SDGs in practice: concrete action by Flemish municipalities (2020)

International cooperation 

• Publication 'From North-South to Global', a vision on municipal policies for global solidarity
• The SDGs in municipal international cooperation: 40 examples. Also available in French and Spanish. 
• The municipalities of Brasschaat and Herent worked with their South American twinning partners on equal partnership and participation. They summarized their experiences in 7 lessons learned. Available in English, French and Spanish.
• Information and materials to jointly organize activities during a campaign week for the SDGs 
• Dashboard with approaches and practices on municipal international cooperation (2023). This dashboard can help you to become internationally active as a local government when you are looking for suitable forms of global cooperation. It provides an overview of existing forms, approaches and practices. Each approach is briefly described with a definition and some characteristics, such as the added value for local government, participation, duration and budget. In addition, some good practices are given for each approach. 

VVSGs 2023 SDG report of the Flemish provinces, cities and municipalities (Voluntary Subnational Review) is also available in English. Consult the full report, or read through the synthesis and infographic. We also descried the process and lessons learned, which can be used by other local government associations.

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