The 2019 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) will be held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 9 to 18 July 2019 under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The HLPF is the main UN platform responsible for the annual review of the progress on the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The theme for the 2019 session is “Empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality” and it will review the Goals 4 (quality education), 8 (decent work), 10 (inequalities), 13 (climate change), 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions), and 17 (partnerships).

Registrations are now closed. Regions4 will be represented at the HLPF by its members from Basque Country, Catalonia, Flanders, Québec, and Western Province as well as the Regions4 Secretariat.

Regions4 will participate in several official and parallel events during the HLPF, including:

• The official meeting “Are we on track for mobilizing the trillions we need for the SDGs?” on 15 July;
• the “Local Action for Global Commitments” on 16-17 July;
• the VNR Lab on “Localizing the SDGs and VNRs: reporting on progress, challenges and opportunities” on 17 July;
• the side event of the Local Authorities Major Group entitled “Localizing the 2030 Agenda: presentation of the 3rd Global Report on the Localization of the SDGs”.
• the side event of “Right to the City and Right to Food: realizing territorial justice and rural-urban linkages” on 10 July.

Regions4 will organize a reception on 15 July to celebrate the regional governments’ commitments to accelerating the SDGs localization. If you are interested in participating in the event, please contact imoraes@regions4.org

The HLPF draft programme is available here under the tab “programme”. The following highlights three UN special events.

The Local Action for Global Commitments is a two-day event taking place on 16-17 July at the United Nations Headquarters. It is organized by the UN-wide Local2030 network focused on local level financing of the SDGs and local implementation of the SDGs under review at the 2019 HLPF. The event will convene and connect experts from the public, private, and non-governmental sectors, local leaders, and representatives from multiple UN agencies. Further information will be available here soon.

Another highlight is the VNR Labs. This will have 17 sessions, taking place on 9-18 July at the United Nations Headquarters. The VNR Labs aim to provide an informal platform for experience sharing and reflection on the Voluntary National Review (VNR) process. They will be held under the Chatham House rule and will be open to Member States, the UN system and representatives of Major Groups and other Stakeholders. The programme is available here.

Last, the SDGs Learning, Training & Practice will have nine sessions taking place on 9-15 July 2019, in Conference Room 5, at the United Nations Headquarters. Each course will last three hours with morning sessions from 10 am to 1 pm and afternoon sessions from 3 pm to 6 pm. The courses will run in parallel to the HLPF formal meetings. The programme is available here.