Social inclusion in the localisation of sustainable development goals: Evidence from voluntary local reviews in five countries

The concept of inclusion has been widely discussed in both academia and government, and is prominently embedded in the United Nations' 2030 Agenda regarding sustainable development. Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs) serve as a tool for local and regional governments (LRGs) to record and communicate their progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study explores how inclusive vision of the Agenda is localised across national and local contexts by evaluating LRGs' actual policymaking as reported in their VLRs. We examined 183 VLRs submitted by LRGs from five countries – the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, and Kenya – between 2016 and 2024 to investigate patterns and divergences in how social inclusion is prioritised, using a mixed methods approach that combined automated semantic analysis and qualitative thematic coding. The findings reveal notable divergences from the Agenda and its localisation in the five countries, with particular differences in emphasis on social inclusion, including beneficiary groups and inclusion-related content, largely due to differences in economic conditions. We offer some recommendations for how LRGs can advance social inclusion towards sustainable development.