9 July 2019: UN officials informed participants at the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) that a survey is being conducted to collect their views on the first four years of the HLPF. The results of the survey will be presented on 18 July 2019, during a “town hall” meeting on the future of the HLPF.

At the opening of the HLPF session on 9 July 2019, Liu Zhenmin, head of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), announced that DESA is conducting the survey to help take stock of how the HLPF and its voluntary national review (VNR) mechanism have worked in the first four-year cycle. He said the results will provide inputs to the intergovernmental review of the HLPF that will take place during the 74th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) (2019-2020).

Views are being collected from representatives of UN Member States, the UN system, and the Major Groups and other stakeholders. It is available in the six official UN languages.

They survey queries respondents’ level of agreement with several statements, including that:

• The HLPF has brought together participants from all walks of life, working in all three dimensions of sustainable development;
• HLPF discussions have been sufficiently well-prepared and based on evidence, data and analysis;
• The HLPF has sufficiently discussed interlinkages among the SDGs;
• The HLPF should continue to review a set of SDGs every year;
• The engagement of Major Groups and other stakeholders has been meaningful at the HLPF;
• The VNRs have been useful for advancing national implementation;
• The HLPF should include reviews by business, cities or other actors; and
• Participants have taken good examples for SDG implementation back to their countries.

It also asks what elements should be included in the Ministerial Declaration resulting from each annual HLPF session.

According to the HLPF programme, Liu will share the results of the survey during a “town hall” session on Thursday, 18 July 2019. The first part of the meeting will focus on lessons learned from the HLPF’s first cycle, featuring the assessments of experts, stakeholders and officials. In the second part, Liu will present the results of the DESA survey, and representatives from Liechtenstein and Colombia – who are serving as rapporteurs for the ECOSOC President on this topic – will present the main messages of the HLPF as input to Heads of State and Government attending the SDG Summit in September 2019.

The HLPF is under way at UN Headquarters in New York, US, from 9-18 July 2019. [Survey] [SDG Knowledge Hub Sources] [IISD Meeting Coverage of HLPF]