As a civil society organization, SDO works to fill the vacuum of service provision left by the State and plays an important role in providing vital services such as information and education, health, water and sanitation, disaster management, research and development and assistance to refugees and internally displaced people. 

Enhanced civic capacity, as one of the key determinants of inclusive participatory processes, can contribute to the creation of enabling conditions for localizing SDGs. SDO works to take part in planning and policy formulations processes. Localization of SDGs supports the principle of active participation of civil society in the process of setting local SDGs agenda and defining SDGs development plans, strategies and actions. Civil society participation in the planning and implementation of the SDGs improves accountability and transparency, information sharing and participatory decision making.

With other civil society organizations, SDO works to provide interventions and solutions to local problems and aims to bring about positive change and outcomes. Strengthening their capacity and governance structures improves community participation in the needs assessment, identification and planning of intervention priorities for SDGs. It is important to accommodate the participation of civil society organizations in the institutional planning processes of SDGs whether it is the inclusion of members of the civil society in the national and regional planning committees or engaging them in planning consultative forums. Civil society organizations must be accepted as equal partners in global, national and local frame- works to achieve SDGs and their perspectives accepted as the genuine reflection of the local population.

It is difficult to set priorities and plan interventions without the necessary knowledge and information about the local community. SDO and civil society organizations can provide such vital information and data about the local community and their needs.

SDO and civil society in general can bring rich and diverse knowledge and experiences to the planning process and at the same time provide legitimacy and high level of success to the implementation of the SDGs. SDO can facilitate coherent multi-sectoral approach to planning and implementing SDGs by establishing multi-stakeholder partnerships and networks.

Sustainable development is a challenging social process. The different objectives of society – social, economic and environmental – need to be integrated where possible and traded-off where they are incompatible. Institutional and individual roles and responsibilities have to change, so that new patterns of behavior will foster sustainable development.

Public involvement is a process through which the views of all interested parties (stakeholders) are integrated into decision-making process. It aims at creating openness and dialogues from the outset of the process.

Public participation in the development process Increases the level of commitment of all stakeholders to make decisions, improves public understanding of sustainable development, its objectives and impacts,  improves a sense of social responsibility among stakeholders, increases equity within society, increases the effectiveness of development projects design and implementation to meet the needs of the targets, improves sustainability of the development projects, and increases government credibility and legitimacy through transparent decision-making.

SDO provides information and education on wide variety of issues using divergent communication and dissemination channels such as community gatherings, debates, outreach awareness campaigns, radio, television, social media and person to person verbal exchange of information. This awareness raising expands the people’s participation and contribution to the debates and decision-making processes in the society. 

SDO contributes to the localization of SDGs by increasing local community knowledge and understanding about the importance and relevance of SDGs as well as the development objectives and targets. It educates and trains local communities to express their views, beliefs, concerns and alternative approaches, promotes their rights and responsibilities and builds public consensus and local ownership of the SDGs by supporting the bottom-up approach of planning and implementation.

SDO speaks on behalf of the local communities and prepares policy proposals and representations to influence the national and local policy making processes. We advocate for greater accountability and transparency by encouraging local communities to hold public bodies to account, organizing public gatherings, forums and meetings.

Localization of SDGs entails the development of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) legal, organizational, policy and procedural framework that links across different institutional levels and stakeholder groups.

Civil society encompasses wide range of stakeholders in the local community and its participation in the monitoring and evaluation of SDGs development objectives and strategies is very critical for ensuring that different ideas, perspectives and local community experiences are considered in setting consistent measure of change and improving oversight effectiveness and accountability.

SDO can participate in the design of M&E processes and tools such as data collection, analysis and reporting, impact assessments exercises, stakeholder feedback processes and outcome indicators.

SDO can employ variety of monitoring and evaluation tools such as observations, surveys, case studies, personal stories, focus groups and evaluation studies to measure progress and development outcomes. we can mobilize the local community to evaluate the outcome of SDGs development objectives and provide feedback.

Localization of SDGs calls for the establishment of data collection systems to gather, analyze and disseminate statistics and other socio-economic information. SDO have access to the community and can employ wide range of community entry processes to gather information, learn and assess local community needs and plan specific interventions. we can help data disaggregation and analysis to address inequality and measure outcomes. We can use public feedback to assist in the oversight of the quality and accessibility of the publicly and privately provided services.