Locations
What is a Voluntary National Review (VNR)?
The Voluntary National Review (VNR) is a process where countries review and report their progress, challenges, and lessons learned in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
The VNR is presented during the annual United Nations High-level Political Forum, a platform for global SDG discussions and progress tracking. The 2025 theme for the High-level Political Forum is "Advancing sustainable, inclusive, science- and evidence-based solutions for the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs for leaving no one behind", with in-depth reviews of Goals 3, 5, 8, 14, and 17.
Malaysia will present their third VNR in July 2025, reporting on all the 17 SDGs. The VNR facilitates knowledge sharing of Malaysia's experience with other nations, including successes, challenges, and lessons learned, to accelerate the achievement of the 2030 Agenda. Since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, Malaysia has presented its VNR twice to the High-level Political Forum: in 2017 and 2021. You can view previous VNR reports here:
Why the Voluntary National Review (VNR) matters for Malaysia
Malaysia’s VNR showcases Malaysia’s progress and achievements in poverty reduction, provision of education and universal healthcare, and climate action. It is a crucial process involving all stakeholders based on the principle of Leaving No One Behind.
The VNR promotes transparency, accountability, and trust through open data sharing and policy discussions. This is important to identify development gaps, guide better strategies, and foster innovation and partnerships to accelerate SDG progress. It also aims to generate opportunities for improvements that can inform future policy and action especially as inputs for the upcoming 13th Malaysia Plan.
Supporting materials on VNR themes
The report is currently in preparation, and the slideshow offers additional insights into the themes covered in the Voluntary National Review (VNR). Please refer to this information when providing your feedback.
Submit your feedback here
The goal of the Call for Feedback is to gather your perspectives for developing a collective, comprehensive, and inclusive VNR that accurately reflects Malaysia's progress and aspirations towards sustainable development. Submit your feedback by 14 April 2025.
Click link to survey: https://bit.ly/VNR2025_sharewithus
Background to the SDGs
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development presents 17 Sustainable Development Goals with 169 targets and more than 200 indicators to track development at the national, regional, and local levels. Sustainable development can only be achieved with the involvement of all.
Malaysia has thus taken crucial efforts to prioritise sustainable development, benefitting economic and social development while addressing environmental degradation challenges. These efforts have been led by the Ministry of Economy since 2015.
In 2019, the Department of Statistics Malaysia published an SDG Dashboard to enhance data accessibility for sustainable development. More recently, on 1 August 2025, the National SDG Centre began its operation as the focal point for sustainable development in the country.
The VNR is a collaborative initiative under the purview of the National SDG Centre, Ministry of Economy, and United Nations Malaysia.
