Conference Primer: Sustainable Development Goals: 2023

The UN Regional Forums should bridge local-to-global action and focus on practical experience and peer learning.
We propose three issues on which the Regional Forums can and should focus when deciding on ways to push SDG implementation forward: support review of synergies and trade-offs at a local scale; offer more spaces for scientific actors; and support further access to finance.

A UNDP policy brief recommends policy steps to reverse the current debt crisis and demonstrates the “potentially transformative” impact of tackling debt and expanding access to lower cost and long-term maturity funding.

The UN Secretariat will release 11 policy briefs offering “concrete ideas” on how to advance Our Common Agenda as Member States prepare for the Summit of the Future in 2024.

- On 14 February, the co-facilitators for the Summit – the German and Namibian permanent representatives, Antje Leendertse and Neville Gertze, – will present their proposal for a roadmap for 2023.

- It recommends “reallocation and reprioritization of public expenditures” to create jobs and revive economic growth.

- He stressed his hope that the UN 2023 Water Conference will become a new “Paris moment” for water action.
- Another core priority for the UNGA will be to “advance discussions on a methodology for measuring sustainability transformation in a way that integrates human well-being, natural capital and sustainable economic development”.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres identified three areas for action: closing the connectivity gap; closing the governance gap; and reenforcing a human rights and human-centered approach to digital cooperation.

Framed by the outcomes of the 2023 IGF, the Global Digital Compact will be annexed to the intergovernmentally negotiated Pact for the Future to be adopted at the Summit of the Future in 2024.

UN General Assembly (UNGA) President Dennis Francis has circulated a letter from the co-facilitators of the intergovernmental preparatory process for the Summit of the Future regarding the schedule of informal consultations. The co-facilitators aim to have a zero draft of the Pact for the Future in early 2024.
Following this initial meeting, the co-facilitators will convene a series of closed informal consultations in December “to hear directly from Member States on the substantive issues that they would like to see reflected in the zero draft of the Pact for the Future on a chapter-by-chapter basis”.

Members of the World Bank Development Committee endorsed the World Bank’s new mission, vision, and playbook to create a world free of poverty on a livable planet.
Partners issued a set of four Marrakech Principles for Global Cooperation to build resilience and expand opportunities for a better future.

Underscoring that time “is not on our side,” the UN Secretary-General invited Member States to “draw inspiration from recent global agreements on … biodiversity, on the high seas, on … loss and damage, and on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment”.

Francis said these challenges demand full engagement in preparations for the 2024 Summit of the Future, to “define the future of international cooperation amid multidimensional risks”.

Representing another outcome of the Summit, national and global commitments made by Member States and initiatives announced by stakeholders will be registered in the SDG Summit Acceleration and Accountability Platform.

It is built around two core elements: a forward-thinking culture; and cutting-edge skills in data, digital transformation, innovation, strategic foresight, and behavioral science.

The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, explicitly excluded the world’s five largest emitters of greenhouse gasses – China, the United States, Russia, India and Japan – from his Climate Ambition Summit, held Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
The United Kingdom, another major polluter, was notably absent from the summit, amid reports that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had avoided the UN General Assembly after being warned he would be excluded from the climate discussions.
The summit, announced by Guterres in December 2022, was intended to be a “no-nonsense” showcase of the “first movers and doers” fighting to keep alive the increasingly unrealistic goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.

Over the last six months, UNCTAD has crunched the numbers on nearly 50 SDG indicators across 90 countries, including 48 developing economies, covering three quarters of the global population.

A week of high-profile events lies ahead as the 78th high-level session of the UN General Assembly kicks off in New York.
World leaders, policymakers and civil society actors will assess progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and push for greater action to tackle climate change. Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas leads the WMO delegation.

The outgoing UNGA President called for integrated solutions that are “future-proof” and for urgent reform of the UN.
Incoming President Dennis Francis elaborated on the four priorities of his Presidency – peace, prosperity, progress, and sustainability.

According to UNGA 77 President Kőrösi, the declaration signals “the beginning of a new phase of accelerated implementation” of the 2030 Agenda, which, he urges, “will have to be complemented by continuous high-level political guidance”.

“A Pact for the Future” will comprise a chapeau and five chapters.
If intergovernmentally agreed, a global digital compact and a declaration on future generations will be annexed to the Pact for the Future.

- The current state of play reflects the international financial architecture’s failure to channel resources to the world’s most vulnerable economies at the necessary scale and speed.
- A study by IDOS, IDDRI, and SEI finds effective SDG financing is possible when four main conditions are met.

- Thirty-eight countries and the EU presented their VNRs.
- HLPF 2023 also included sessions on the implementation challenges faced by different groups of countries, including SIDS, Africa, LDCs, LLDCs, and, for the first time, middle-income countries.

- “Remarkable” HLPF moments such as Science Day, the first-ever session on middle-income countries, and youth representation in each panel will only deliver meaningful contributions to SDG implementation if there is continuity.
- The SDG Summit and the Summit of the Future offer an opportunity for a package deal for accelerated implementation, more effective methods of follow-up and review, and enabling a multilateral environment for countries to achieve the SDGs.

- In addition to seven panel sessions, a treaty ceremony took place during the Special Event to mark the deposit of the instruments of accession by the Gambia to the two UN water conventions.
- To follow up on the UN 2023 Water Conference, many government representatives supported appointing a Special UN Envoy on water.

- UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged world leaders to announce national and global commitments that will help drive SDG transformation.
- Twelve high-impact initiatives will serve as anchors of SDG acceleration going forward.

By helping to put food on the table and pay for school, housing and medical expenses, they provide a crucial lifeline for those who receive them. That which isn’t spent on immediate needs can be invested in the local community.

He shared his thoughts on reasons for optimism and pessimism about the way multilateralism is functioning, the ways in which it is evolving and the values on which it stands. We also talked about the UN, possibilities of reform, the SDGs, the Secretary-General’s report Our Common Agenda and the Summit for the Future. Richard also explained the importance of the UN entities based in Geneva in the UN system.

Member States exchanged initial views on the zero draft during an informal consultation on 16 May.
The next consultation, scheduled for 24 May, will provide opportunities for “further, fuller, and more substantive engagement”.

The Forum will contribute to the HLPF’s review of SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation), SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy), SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities), and SDG 17 (partnership for the Goals) in July and serve as a steppingstone to the midterm review of all 17 SDGs at the SDG Summit in September.

But to fully reap this potential, we must redouble efforts to address persistent digital divides in the population and among countries and regions, which amplify existing social, cultural, and economic inequalities.
By Olga Algayerova, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)

The note provides an overview of progress, challenges, and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the advancement of the five Goals, along with an overall assessment of the state of the 2030 Agenda at the mid-point in its implementation.

It outlines areas where transformative actions have been successful as well as those where support is urgently needed.