Jul 6, 2017
Next Week- the 2017 High-level Political Forum
For this week in SDGs Counting, we focus on preparing for the HLPF beginning next week in New York.
There are few events that are as directly tied to our interests of monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals as the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. The HLPF is the United Nations’ central platform for follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs. The event begins on Monday, July 10th, goes through Thursday, July 20th, and includes High-level segments of Member state discussions, presentations of Voluntary National Reviews, and side events covering a broad number of relevant topics, including the launch of the SDG16 Global Data Report and the presentation of the 2017 SDG Index Report. Here is our guide to the whirlwind event.
How to Prepare
This overview from the IISD SDG Knowledge Hub has been valuable for gaining a larger view of this year’s Forum. The theme of the 2017 HLPF is ‘Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world’, and focuses on Goals 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, and 14. You can find updated lists of indicators for these goals here.
This spring, the UN convened five Regional Forums on Sustainable Development. These RFSD’s provide regional-level input to discussions that will take place during the HLPF.
The HLPF is tasked with producing a Ministerial Declaration at the end of the event. There is a zero draft currently available, as well as documents that piece together the discussions and thematic elements leading up to the Ministerial Declaration. The declaration is expected to be adopted on July 19th.
How to Follow Along
Main Sessions — High-level Segment
The UN will broadcast the High-level Segment of the Forum on UN Web TV. These sessions take place from 9am-1pm and 3pm-6pm on July 10th-July 14, and concludes on Thursday, July 20th from 10am-1pm and 3pm-6pm. The draft program agenda for these sessions is available here.
We like to follow UN events on Twitter, and you can follow the HLPF using #HLPF17 and #SDGs throughout the event. #Agenda2030 and #GlobalGoals are other commonly used tags to follow the conversation.
Voluntary National Reviews
44 countries have volunteered to produce and present Voluntary National Reviews at this year’s HLPF, and many have already provided written reports to the UN. These can be found in the UN VNR database. Countries are encouraged to share experiences, successes, and challenges in reviewing progress toward the SGDs. Countries are not required to report using the SDGs global indicator framework, and often use national indicators. These Reviews will take place from Monday, July 17th to Wednesday, July 19th.
Side-Events
Side events at the HLPF are valuable insight into SDG progress and review from the point of view of civil society, the private sector, and other stakeholders. An agenda of side events is available here. The UN Global Compact has also drafted a guide for businesses attending the HLPF. The SDG Business Forum takes place during the HLPF, and will be held on Tuesday, July 18th.
For those not attending the Forum, side events can be hard to view in real time, but some side events may be live-streamed or live-tweeted by the sponsoring organization. Twitter and organization’s websites may be best for catching up on outcome document, report launches, and recordings of panels and debates.
What events are you most looking forward to at the High-level Political Forum? What are your favorite resources for prepping for the Forum? Let us know on Twitter, and be sure to follow along with us next week!
