20 December 2016: UN General Assembly (UNGA) President Peter Thomson will appoint the Permanent Representatives of Argentina and Australia to serve as co-facilitators on the alignment of the UNGA agenda with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The process is expected to build on a ‘Strategical Alignment’ report prepared in 2016 by a group of five Permanent Representatives.

The 2016 report assessed how the targets of each Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) are substantively addressed by the UNGA’s agenda, the agendas of the UNGA Committees, and the agendas of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and its Commissions. The mapping assessment was facilitated by Maria Emma Mejia Velez, Permanent Representative of Colombia, with support from the Permanent Representatives of Morocco, the Netherlands, Slovenia and the Republic of Korea.

The group found that the majority of SDGs contain targets that are either covered in the existing UNGA and/or ECOSOC agendas, or can be covered by making use of existing Agenda items. It assessed SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) and SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production) to be “largely uncovered under the GA and ECOSOC agendas.” The targets of three other SDGs were found to have “limited coverage” under the UNGA and ECOSOC agendas: SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), SDG 10 (reduced inequalities), and SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions). It said two SDGs are covered “elsewhere in the UN system” – SDG 13 (climate action) and SDG 15 (life on land). The group reported that the specific targets for each SDG’s means of implementation are addressed through UNGA agenda item 19 (Follow-up to and implementation of the outcomes of the International Conferences on Financing for Development) and in the ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development follow-up (FFD Forum). The report called to assess, “in some time,” how meaningfully the MOI targets are being covered through these mechanisms.

Thomson informed the President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Frederick Musiiwa Makamure Shava, of his decision on co-facilitators for the process during a meeting of the two presidents on 20 December 2016 at the UN Headquarters in New York, US. Thomson stressed the need to work closely with ECOSOC on the alignment process.

Their discussion also covered: synergies between the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HPLF), the Financing for Development (FfD) Forum, and the Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); the upcoming High Level Dialogue on ‘Building Sustainable Peace for All’; a forthcoming briefing on the STI Forum; the ECOSOC Youth Forum; the 55th Session of the Commission for Social Development (CSD 55); the 2017 ECOSOC Operational Activities Segment (OAS); and an ECOSOC Special Meeting on ‘Innovations in Infrastructure Development and Promoting Sustainable Industrialization.’ [Memo of the Meeting] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on Strategic Alignment Report]