An Update from the UN: High-Level Political Forum

High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development

This is a continuation of the UN Update of June 23, 2021, on the High Level Political Forum.

The High-Level Political Forum has two major goals:

  1. To provide political leadership, guidance and recommendations on implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As part of the forum a ministerial declaration is created at the end of the HLPF. This gives an idea where the world is trying to go to obtain sustainable development. The forum provides vision and a picture of the state of the SDGs.
  2. Provides follow up and review of the implementation of 2030 Agenda by many countries on a yearly basis. There are17 SDGs, 169 targets and 231 indicators.

The HLPF takes place in four different stages:

  1. First a Regional (March and April ) meeting followed by a national thematic look at the different goals to be reviewed in a particular year. 
  2. Secondly is the Thematic approach to the SDGs. This is coordinated by the Expert Meeting Groups.
  3. Thirdly, on the National level, countries are invited to offer a voluntary review. The UN is not a world government but an Intragovernmental unit. The UN undertakes studies, research and recommendations but cannot enforce countries to act on recommendations. The VNR (voluntary national review) reports identify the country’s progress on implementation of the SDGs. This year Forty-Four (44) countries have volunteered to present a review on eight of the SDGs.
  4. Fourth, and lastly is the Substantive Economic and Social Council ECSOC review. This covers things like science and other areas. 

 The Official Program Sessions will be on UN WebTV. Here is the entire two-week outline. Look it over and see what sessions you might like to follow. Click here for a short video that explains the purpose of the HLPF and the steps to the full High Level Political Forum.  

In addition to the video, here is a link to the briefing on the HLPF that the Dominicans for Justice and Peace held on June 30, in preparation for the HLPF. It looks at the HLPF from the rule of law and criminalization.  Tobias is a member of the Dominicans for Justice and Peace at the UN in Vienna.

An Upcoming High-Level Political Forum:
Tuesday, 6 July

The program of the HLPF 2021 will focus on the theme of the forum “Sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that promotes the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development: building an inclusive and effective path for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda in the context of the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development”. It will include the thematic reviews of Sustainable Development Goals 1, 2, 3, 8, 10, 12, 13, 16 and 17, and the voluntary national reviews (VNRs) to be conducted by Member States.