29 May 2015: The President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Martin Sajdik, Permanent Representative of Austria, provided a briefing for UN Member States and others on preparations for the third session of the High-level Political Forum on sustainable development (HLPF). Sajdik said the third HLPF session, focusing on the theme “Strengthening integration, implementation and review: the HLPF after 2015,” which will take place on 26 June-8 July 2015, will discuss important issues related to the post-2015 development agenda and how to make the HLPF ready for 2016.

Opening the briefing on 29 May 2015, at UN Headquarters in New York, US, Sajdik noted that 2015 will be the last year of the ECOSOC Annual Ministerial Review (AMR). He introduced the programme of the HLPF 2015 session, and said it will reflect on how the Forum can carry out follow-up and review functions, among other issues.

He highlighted that the meeting will take place immediately before the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD 3) and at a time where the post-2015 negotiations will be “in full swing.” He stressed the need to ensure that all these meetings and processes will be mutually reinforcing, and noted that the conclusions of the HLPF will be shared with the Co-Facilitators of the FfD 3 and post-2015 processes.

Sajdik informed participants that, according to numerous consultations, negotiating an HLPF Ministerial Declaration probably will not be suitable for the 2015 session, since it would intervene in parallel and be additional to the ongoing intergovernmental post-2015 and FfD processes. He said there was a “general feeling” that a Summary, to be agreed with the other members of the ECOSOC Bureau, could be produced instead of a Ministerial Declaration. He added that this would not set a precedent for future HLPF sessions, and would be done on an exceptional basis only.

Several Member States then took the floor. Brazil said his country was expecting a Ministerial Declaration that would contribute to the discussions on follow-up and review, and was not in a position to accept a Summary as the outcome of the session. Switzerland said her country had sent a letter to the President of ECOSOC in February 2015, on behalf of 17 countries, proposing that a Summary serve as the outcome of the 2015 session of the HLPF. Mexico, the US, Australia and Japan, among others, supported the proposal to have a Summary as the outcome of the 2015 HLPF session.

A representative from the Women’s Major Group highlighted the importance of civil society participation, and called for the role of rights-holders to be recognized on its own in the HLPF programme.

The HLPF was established following the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) to, inter alia, provide political leadership, guidance and recommendations for sustainable development. It replaces the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) and held its two first sessions in 2013 and 2014 respectively. [HLPF Website] [Draft Integrated Programme for HLPF and AMR 2015]