The UN Secretariat has invited UN Member States to nominate scientists to draft the 2023 edition of the Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR). The group of authors will be composed in January 2020.

The Independent Group of Scientists to draft the report is expected to include 15 experts appointed by the UN Secretary-General. Nominations can be submitted to DESA by 20 December 2019.

In July 2016, UN Member States agreed that the GSDR would become a quadrennial report drafted by an independent group of scientists (IGS), supported by a task team of six UN entities: the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Bank. 

The independent group of scientists for the 2023 report will be composed in January 2020.

The first such GSDR was issued in September 2019, titled, ‘The Future is Now: Science for Achieving Sustainable Development.’ The 2019 GSDR brings together scientific evidence from around the world to illuminate how action taken immediately – or not taken – will determine the existence of humanity, and calls for strategies to multiply the effects of actions. The report informed the 2019 SDG Summit, where Heads of State and Government considered four years of progress towards the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs.

In the letter to Member States dated 18 November 2019, DESA head Liu Zhenmin notes that according to the Ministerial Declaration of the 2016 HLPF (E/2016/L.24-E/HLPF/2016/L.2), the Group is “appointed for each Global Sustainable Development Report by the Secretary-General in open, transparent and inclusive consultations with Member States, including the possibility of taking nominations from Member States.” The group of experts must represent “a variety of backgrounds, scientific disciplines and institutions, ensuring geographical and gender balance,” he adds. [Letter to Member States]