On Tuesday, June 3, the National Planning Council organized fourth voluntary national review of the State of Qatar for 2025, as part of the preparations for participation in the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, scheduled to be held at the United Nations headquarters in New York City from July 14 to 23, 2025 .

The workshop aims to involve stakeholders from various sectors in reviewing the initial draft of the Voluntary National Review report, and to provide their comments and suggestions to ensure the comprehensiveness and credibility of the content, affirming the principle of comprehensive national participation, and strengthening national ownership of the report.

The workshop was attended by representatives from government agencies, the private sector, civil society, academic institutions, and international and regional organizations, along with experts from the National Planning Council. The workshop represented a significant step forward in the report's preparation, focusing on reviewing the narrative for each Sustainable Development Goal, updating data, and incorporating success stories, challenges, and lessons learned in preparation for the final version.

The workshop adopted an interactive mechanism, whereby the full report was distributed to the participating stakeholders for their review, and they provided their feedback directly and in real time to the National Planning Council team to ensure transparency.

In this context, Mr. Ahmed Khaled Al-Sumaiti, Director of the International Indicators and International Cooperation Department at the National Planning Council, said: “This workshop is the culmination of a series of national consultations that began at the start of the year, and aims to strengthen partnerships between various institutions to ensure that the Voluntary National Review reflects the reality of developments and progress in the State of Qatar in all sectors. The commitment of the participants today reflects the spirit of national cooperation and the orientation towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.”

The first and second workshops focused on laying the general groundwork for the report and reviewing relevant technical data and sectoral studies, while the third workshop provided a comprehensive platform for a final review and integration of stakeholders’ comments in preparation for submitting the final version of the report on June 17, 2025.

The process of preparing the Voluntary National Review includes forming an internal working group and technical working groups, preparing a roadmap, defining the various tasks and responsibilities of team members, as well as updating the Sustainable Development Indicators, in addition to collecting the necessary data and statistics.

Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) are the primary mechanism for assessing countries' progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the national level. These results and progress are then presented and shared with international organizations. Governments commit to monitoring and systematically reviewing the implementation of the national plan until 2030, within a robust, participatory, effective, transparent, and integrated framework.

It is worth noting that the State of Qatar prepared its first Voluntary National Review in 2017, the second in 2018, and the third in 2021. Voluntary National Reviews focus on highlighting the progress made in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes 17 goals, 169 targets, and 248 indicators, in addition to clarifying the various national efforts in the field of achieving comprehensive sustainable development and Qatar National Vision 2030.