What to Read This Week- Wrapping up the High Level Political Forum
Resources and recordings from the 2017 High Level Political Forum
Yesterday marked the end of the 2017 High Level Political Forum at the United Nations in New York City, which opened last week on Monday, July 10th. While the Forum mainly deals with country-level follow up and review of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, themes of innovation in financing, impact investing, and support of social entrepreneurship and private sector partnerships were found throughout the nine days of the Forum.
While we are still digging into outcome document and reports launched during the HLPF, we wanted to provide a roundup of resources and recordings of relevant sessions from the Forum.
The Partnership Exchange

The Partnership Exchange at the High Level Political Forum took place on Monday, July 17th, in the General Assembly Hall. This is the second convening of the Exchange, held in collaboration with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) and the United Nations Office for Partnerships (UNOP). The event highlighted multi-stakeholder partnerships that demonstrate voluntary commitments to achieve the SDGs, and presenters were encouraged to share expertise and lessons learned.
Here you can find the full agenda for the Exchange, with links to participating stakeholders. The Exchange was also broadcast live on UN Web TV.
Government to government partnership were commonly highlighted, but the first two panels featured the potential of private partnerships in the agricultural sector, commitments to the green economy, and updates on the Sustainable Stock Exchange.
The SDG Business Forum

Taking place in the General Assembly Hall the day after the Partnership Exchange, the second SDG Business Forum was possibly the largest private sector event in the HLPF’s five year history.
While the morning session of the SDG Business Forum was interrupted due to a fire alarm, both the morning and afternoon sessions were recorded and are available to watch on UN Web TV. The morning sessions of the Forum gave panelists a chance to discuss experiences in private sector investment in the SDGs, reporting on progress, and working with governments. The afternoon session of the Forum provided rapid fire case studies describing roles the private sector has filled or could fill to achieve the SDGs. These 14 case studies corresponded to the 7 SDGs that were the focus of the 2017 HLPF: Goal 1, Goal 2, Goal 3, Goal 5, Goal 9, Goal 14, and Goal 17.
In between the morning and afternoon sessions, the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, gave remarks at the SDG Business Forum Luncheon, which the UN Global Compact streamed live.
The International Chamber of Commerce, one of the sponsors of the event, has posted the outcome statements, signed by attendants including the Business Council for the United Nations, the UN Global Compact, and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
Impact Investment and Innovation for SDGs
The first week of the HLPF, the High level session dove into Goal 17 of the SDGs- Investing in and financing for the SDGs. This high level session, held on Thursday, July 13th, recorded here and summarized here, was accompanied by a side event earlier that day, Impact Investment and Innovation for SDGs. This event was held by the UN Mission of Armenia in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The livestreamed event began with opening statements from the Permanent Representative of Armenia to the UN, H.E. Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, and Cihan Sultanoğl, the Assistant Secretary-General of the UN. Bradley Busetto, UNDP Resident Representative for the Republic of Armenia, provided a summary of the Impact Investment for Development Summit that was held in Armenia in March of this year.
The two panels of the event were moderated by Hans Wahl, Director of the INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Initiative. The first panel showcased innovations in government partnership and social enterprise in Armenia, with presentations from Alex Khachatryan, Director of the Center for Strategic Initiatives of the Government of Armenia, and from social entrepreneurs: Garo Armen, Founder and Chairman of Children of Armenia Fund; Souren Aloyan, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Dasaran Educational Program; Marie Lou Papazian, Managing Director at the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies; and Pierre Gurdjian, Philanthropy Partner, RVVZ Foundation.
The second panel of the event, beginning at the 1:51:00 mark of the recording, was more focused on impact investing, featuring panelists Banny Banerjee, Director at Stanford ChangeLabs; Kevin Jones, Co-Founder of SOCAP; and Mika Pyykkö, Project Director of Impact Investing at Sitra. The Q&A following the panel is illuminating, showcasing the vast array of questions that sustainable development and government professionals have for impact investors.
“This is a market that’s heading toward coordination, but we need lots of translation.” — Kevin Jones
The High Level Political Forum provided valuable insight into how the global, public sphere views the potential of business and impact investing for achieving the SDGs.

