This report is City of Melbourne’s first Voluntary Local Review (Review) of progress against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (the Goals). It enables all Melburnians to take stock of what is happening in our municipality, assess what we are doing, and how well and ask the question: “Are we pursuing a better future for all Melburnians?”

We are committed to pursuing a better future for all, and this voluntary review presents us with a unique opportunity to reflect on the vital work Council does.

There are 17 globally recognised ambitions (the Goals) to progress sustainable development and track performance.

A central pillar of the Goals is to ‘leave no one behind’.

In a unique collaboration with research centres at two of Australia’s top universities – the Melbourne Centre for Cities at University of Melbourne and the Monash Sustainable Development Institute at Monash University - we have adapted the global framework to our local context. Across all 17 Goals, we have established 87 locally relevant targets with over 250 indicators. This approach, coined the ‘Melbourne SDG Principles’, sets a new global standard for city-to-city benchmarking and collaboration.

Action on the Sustainable Development Goals is primarily directed at a national level. However, at the City of Melbourne, we recognise all levels of government must play a role to create change. This is why we have stepped up to be the first council in Australia to assess our own performance and determine what needs to be done so our four-yearly council plans can be implemented in a sustainable way.

Our city-wide approach requires buy-in from residents, local, state and federal governments, businesses, industry and academia.

Achieving these Goals requires collective action. We want to know what these Goals mean to you and what you’re doing to meet them.

The Review is an honest and transparent account of Melbourne’s performance, which has highlighted:

• strong progress against some goals
• where we’re on track to achieve our targets
• areas which require further investigation and improvement.

We will use the data and insights in this Review to inform where Council will prioritise our effort through our annual planning and budget process. We will monitor progress annually through an annual performance scorecard and adjust our annual work program where necessary to improve performance over time.

We will conduct a Review every four years, in the lead up to each new Council Plan – which outlines our priorities over a four-year term and identifies key performance indicators to which we hold ourselves primarily accountable to the community. Our second Review will reflect on what we have done, how effective we have been ‘moving the dial’ and what needs to change.