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The 2020 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF2020) concluded on 16 July, marking the first time that the meeting was held entirely virtually.
Global efforts to curb the ongoing coronavirus pandemic heavily influenced the focus and format of this year’s HLPF. While the session was initially planned to serve as a launchpad for the UN Secretary-General’s “Decade of Action to deliver the Global Goals”, organizers modified the agenda to assess the impact of the pandemic on SDG implementation.
As UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed underscored in her remarks at the closing of the HLPF, “We were not on track to deliver the Goals before COVID-19 hit, and given the impacts of the crisis, the road ahead is now even steeper.
“[W]e can turn this around, if we stay true to the 2030 Agenda”, she added.
Assessing country SDG progress
At the 2020 HLPF, voluntary national reviews (VNRs) were presented by 47 countries. Of this total, 26 countries presented for the first time, 20 for the second time and one for the third time. Due to the virtual format, some country presentations were live webcast, others were recorded in advance, and some countries used a hybrid approach.
Observers noted that although this digital format proved challenging at times, this year’s HLPF did reach a much larger audience, with some 93,000 views recorded on UN TV over the eight-day period (For more data points on the 2020 HLPF, see the “In Numbers” graphic below).
Resources
A series of resources are available providing an informative recap of the 2020 HLPF. This includes a full video debrief of the meeting that was hosted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) with the participation of advisers to the Lab, Kali Taylor and Eleonora Bonaccorsi.
- IISD 2020 HLPF Debrief Webinar
- IISD Reporting Services – Summary and daily highlights
- HLPF 2020 website
- VNRs presented
- HLPF 2020 summary by the President of ECOSOC
- Draft Ministerial Declaration and related communications
- SDG Date Sources at Year Five (via IISD)
