Key Findings

• An enabling environment & open civic space are essential conditions for the effective engagement of non-state actors, including civil society, in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Consistent with previous years, the 2021 Voluntary National Review (VNR) reports were largely silent on the issue of shrinking civic space for civil society, although this is now a clearly established global trend.
• Civil society parallel reports provide important information on how civic space is being closed in different countries, but these reports have no status in official VNR processes at national, regional or international levels.