Taking place from 7-16 July 2020, the High-level Political Forum is the central annual platform of the United Nations for reviewing successes, challenges and lessons learned on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The theme this year will be "Accelerated action and transformative pathways: realizing the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development".

Participants will debate where we stand on the SDGs in light of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. They will reflect on how the international community can respond to the pandemic in a way that puts us back on track to achieve the SDGs and accelerate progress during the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development.

Bringing a regional perspective to the discussions, UNECE will be actively engaged in the exchanges:

• Igniting Circular Fashion: Strengthening local value chains through transparency and traceability (14:00-15:00 CEST). UNECE will share progress towards its Policy Recommendation and Technical Standard for Transparency and Traceability in garment and footwear value chains, enhancing resilience and sustainability.

• VNR Lab: Innovative approaches to spur action and delivery on the 2030 Agenda: lessons from the regions, jointly organized by all UN Regional Commissions (13:00-14:00). A representative from the city of Vienna will share concrete experiences on integrating the SDGs in local action.

• Special Event: Official Launch of the SDG6 Global Acceleration Framework, aiming to boost progress on achieving clean water and sanitation for all (14:00-15:30). The Executive Secretary will share perspectives from UNECE’s support to facilitating cross-border water cooperation though the Water Convention and assisting countries’ action for clean water and sanitation under the Protocol on Water and Health.

• Building back better after COVID-19, acting where we will have the greatest impact on the SDGs: Bolstering local action to control the pandemic and accelerate implementation (15:00-16:30). As lead discussant, the Executive Secretary will focus on UNECE’s strong cooperation with cities and support for concrete urban initiatives.

• Messages from the regions (15:00-16:00). Regional perspectives on the global sustainability agenda will be in focus when the Chairs of the Regional Forums report on the outcomes of their respective meetings. The Chair of the 2020 UNECE Regional Forum, Ambassador Vaqif Sadiqov of Azerbaijan, will share perspectives on progress and challenges faced in the UNECE region.

At this year’s HLPF, 13 Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) of SDGs implementation will be presented by UNECE member States: Armenia, Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Republic of Moldova, North Macedonia, Russian Federation, Slovenia, Ukraine and  Uzbekistan. The high participation in VNRs is proof for the efforts by UNECE member States to tackle the persisting challenges and translate the SDGs into policy actions. 54 out of 56 UNECE member States will have reviewed their SDG progress through VNRs.

To learn more about SDGs progress across the region, discover UNECE’s Dashboard, visualizing data on 80 indicators across all 17 SDGs; and read our first regional report, Towards achieving the SDGs in the UNECE Region.