30 June 2014: The High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) opens its second meeting in New York, US, on 30 June 2014. The Forum will address the theme of ‘Achieving the Millennium Development Goals and charting the way for an ambitious post-2015 development agenda including the Sustainable Development Goals.’ The President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Martin Sajdik of Austria, is convening the HLPF meeting under the auspices of the UN General Assembly. A series of six HLPF issue briefs have been released online, on themes relevant to meeting discussions.

The HLPF meeting takes place on 30 June-9 July, and includes a two-day ministerial segment. In the first week, delegates will take part in a series of moderated dialogues on topics including sustainable development financing, future generations, building resilience in countries in special situations, and sustainable consumption and production (SCP). They also will consider how national reviews of sustainable implementation might be designed under the HLPF. Key messages from discussions during the first week will be conveyed to the high-level segment that takes place in the following week.

During the ministerial segment, a series of high-level policy dialogues will take place on: macroeconomic policies to support a post-2015 sustainable development agenda; mainstreaming of climate change into sustainable development strategies and national development planning; commonalities and differences among regional priorities; multi-stakeholder partnerships; and ways to monitor the SDGs. The UN Secretary-General will launch the 2014 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Report at the meeting.

An ECOSOC Annual Ministerial Review (AMR) will take place in parallel with the HLPF high-level segment. The AMR will discuss ongoing and emerging challenges for meeting the MDGs in 2015 and for sustaining development gains in the future. Following the HLPF meeting, a two-day ECOSOC Development Cooperation Forum will take place from 10-11 July.

The HLPF was created as an outcome of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), which agreed in June 2012 to establish a universal intergovernmental high-level political forum that would replace the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD). It was agreed the HLPF would be the intergovernmental entity to follow up on the implementation of sustainable development. The HLPF held its inaugural session on 24 September 2013, under UNGA auspices. [IISD RS Meeting Coverage] [HLPF Meeting Webpage] [IISD RS Coverage of HLPF 1]