30 May 2019: The President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) has issued the modalities for the SDG Summit taking place on 24-25 September 2019, based on consultations that have taken place with UN Member States and stakeholders since February 2019. The Summit’s programme will feature six Leaders Dialogues on specific themes, and it will highlight SDG “acceleration actions” announced in the course of the Summit.
The September 2019 session of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), also referred to as the SDG Summit, is being convened by the UNGA at the level of Heads of State and Government. It is mandated to follow up and review progress in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its 17 SDGs.
The Summit will begin with an opening session including the adoption of the political declaration, which is currently under negotiation by Member States, as well as a presentation of the 2019 Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR). Two brief plenary sessions will feature statements from groups of Member States. The remainder of the Summit will consist of six one-hour Leaders Dialogues. The participants of each Dialogue will be 12 UN Member States, one UN system or international organization representative, and one stakeholder representative. The themes of the dialogues are based on the findings of the Special Edition of the SDG Progress Report and the GSDR, as follows:
- Megatrends impacting the achievement of the SDGs;
- Accelerating the achievement of the SDGs: Critical entry points;
- Measures to leverage progress across the SDGs;
- Localizing the SDGs;
- Partnerships for sustainable development; and
- The 2020-2030 Vision.
A series of “leaving no one behind” videos will be featured between the sessions. The closing will recapitulate the findings of the Leaders’ Dialogues and SDG “acceleration actions” that have been announced in the course of the Summit.
The programme includes no parallel sessions, and no other meetings will take place at the same time, except for the General Debate of the 74th UNGA session.
Announcing these modalities, UNGA President Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces also informed Member States of a briefing on 14 June 2019 at 3 pm regarding the scope and format of the activities of the SDG Summit. Also briefing Member States during the meeting will be: the president of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the UN Deputy Secretary-General, and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Climate Action Summit. The meeting also will include updates from the co-facilitators of preparations for the individual events convening during the high-level week.
Espinosa also shared an information note providing more detail on the SDG “acceleration actions” that will be a feature of the SDG Summit. The note reports that an online platform is being established within the SDG Knowledge Platform to provide an overview of the high-level events of the week and feature multi-stakeholder partnerships, voluntary commitments, and announcements of major new initiatives to accelerate SDG implementation. It notes that voluntary actions and commitments by countries and other actors will be announced before and during the SDG Summit, and it sets out criteria for registering the “acceleration action.” Similar information is provided for each of the high-level meetings during the week, in terms of expected announcements, criteria for inclusion on the platform, and/or follow-up plans.
Finally, the UNGA president circulated a draft “vision statement” for the entire high-level week in September 2019. The two-page document outlines thematic “synergies and coherence” among the six high-level meetings taking place during the week of 23 September 2019, which collectively have “the potential to turn the tide.”
Consultations on the draft political declaration to be adopted during the SDG Summit will resume on 7 June 2019 with an informal-informal meeting in Conference Room 11 at 3 pm, which is open to stakeholders. [Letter of UNGA President conveying SDG Summit modalities, information note and vision statement]