The agreed outcome of the 2024 session of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) is under discussion among UN Member States in “zero draft” form. Informal consultations on the draft Ministerial Declaration continue from 7-8 May 2024.
The co-facilitators for consultations on the Ministerial Declaration of HLPF 2024 and the 2024 session of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) – Permanent Representative of the Dominican Republic José Blanco and Permanent Representatives of Norway Merete Fjeld Brattested – circulated the draft on 30 April. The zero draft is informed by inputs from delegations in writing and during the second informal consultation on 19 April 2024.
In the zero draft, governments “pledge to redouble [their] efforts to achieve a more sustainable world” and “commit[] to bold, ambitious, accelerated, just, and transformative action in the six years to 2030” and look forward to the Summit of the Future in September as an opportunity to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its SDGs. They reaffirm international cooperation, multilateralism, and international solidarity as “the best way” to address today’s global challenges.
The zero draft outlines actions and investment pathways to support the delivery of sustainable and innovative solutions for reinforcing the 2030 Agenda and accelerating poverty eradication. These include commitments on:
- Addressing financing gaps for achieving the SDGs and strengthening multilateral actions to help developing countries cope with the debt crisis;
- Bridging the science, technology, and innovation (STI) divides and expanding the participation of all countries, in particular developing countries, in the digital economy;
- Providing the necessary means of implementation to eradicate poverty and reducing food insecurity and rural poverty; and
- Fostering economic growth, economic diversification, and productive capacities in developing countries.
Accelerating climate action in this decade and enhancing synergies towards the effective implementation of national climate and development policies and actions are also among the commitments.
The draft further commits governments to strengthening the quality of the voluntary national reviews (VNRs) by “a more systematic use of accurate, comparable, and anticipatory data.” They also pledge to “close the data gap and strengthen the capacity of national statistical offices and data systems to ensure access to high-quality, timely, reliable, and disaggregated data.”
The zero draft is based on the co-facilitators’ elements paper of 9 April 2024, which drew from delegates’ written inputs and oral statements made during the first informal consultation on 27 March. [Letter from Co-facilitators Dated 30 April 2024] [Zero Draft of 2024 Ministerial Declaration] [HLPF Outcomes]