What? The High Level Political Forum (HLPF) is a United Nations (UN) conference that meets annually under the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and every four years at the UN
General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York. It reviews and follows up on the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development. The HLPF is tasked with tracking the international implementation and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Although SDGs are rooted in and interlinked with human rights, it is a development space with its own language and advocacy entry points as such.
The forum brings together representatives from UN Member States (sometimes referred to as countries or States), civil society organizations and UN entities to discuss progress and best practice, and to produce a Ministerial Declaration regarding the progress on an annually-chosen theme. This year’s theme is:
“Accelerated action and transformative pathways: realizing the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development”
The “leave no one behind” principle of the SDGs mandates the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people. In short, the SDGs must be inclusive of all people regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and/or sex characteristics.
As a result of the advocacy of UN Member States, UN entities and LGBTI civil society, SOGIESC have become increasingly visible throughout the HLPF program.
Thematic Review of the HLPF
The Division for the Sustainable Development Goals within the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA/DSDG) is organizing consultations on six topics for discussion during the planned July 2020 session of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF). The six sessions comprising this year’s “thematic review” aim to enable discussion of implementation of the 2030 Agenda with a focus on synergies and trade-offs among the 17 SDGs and accelerating progress towards the aim of leaving no one behind.
In previous HLPF sessions, participants conducted “in-depth reviews” on several individual SDGs each year. This year, no SDGs have been selected for in-depth review, but rather the GSDR’s six “entry points” for transformative action will provide a framework for thematic review. The review of each entry point will incorporate a set of closely related SDGs. All 17 SDGs are covered at least once in the course of the six sessions, and Goal 17 on means of implementation (partnership for the Goals) is covered in all six sessions.
Read the full primer, fact sheets, and LGBTI 2030 Agenda here