Miguel Angel Velasco cmf

Member of the cmf Team at the U.N.

The High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development, focused on the 2030 Agenda, began today, July 6, at 9 am at the United Nations building in New York. It is a two-week meeting in which, annually, under the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC), revise the implementation of a group of SDGs of the 2030 Agenda is reviewed, and voluntary implementation reports (VNR) of a group of nations are presented. The focus from which the 2030 Agenda will be examined is the COVID-19 pandemic. The title, more descriptive than synthetic of the HLPF, is the following: “A sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that promotes the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development: building an inclusive and effective pathway for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda in the context of the decade of action and results for sustainable development.”

The opening session was chaired and introduced by H.E. Mr. Munir Akram (Pakistan), President of the Economic and Social Council. Mr. Munir was followed by presenting the ten issues that the ECOSOC Integration team concluded after some study sessions; they were introduced by H.E. Mr. Juan Sandoval Mendiolea, Vice President of Economic and Social Council, on messages from the Integration segment of ECOSOC. This was followed by brief diagnoses on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda at the time of COVID-19: Dr. Tedros Adhanom, Director-General, World Health Organization; Ms. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund: Ms. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization: 

All those who took the floor spoke of the severe consequences that the COVID-19 pandemic is having and will have around the world. The setback concerning the progress made in the fight against poverty is and will be dramatic. The Director-General of the World Health Organization denounced the considerable inequality in the availability of vaccines between developed and developing countries. He called for urgent consideration of all possible ways to vaccinate the entire world population: COVAX program, vaccine donation, patent liberalization, vaccine manufacturing in developing countries with the capacity to do so. All of them insisted on the importance of sharing technologies, not only in health but also in other fields, to get out of the catastrophic world situation we are facing.

Juan Sandoval Mendiolea presented the following conclusions-priorities of the ECOSOC coordination group: 

1. To regain confidence in national and international institutions. 2.

2. To vaccinate, as a matter of urgency, the entire world population.

3. To continue the struggle to eliminate inequalities.

4. To rebuild the economy, protecting people and the planet.

5. To opt for a new model of development that must be equitable and sustainable.

6. Recover from the pandemic with significant social advances.

7. Connecting everyone digitally.

8. Have more accurate and reliable statistics to develop more effective programs.

9. Reduce the fragility of vulnerable countries.

10. Consolidate ECOSOC so that it is more deliberative, effective, and practical.

All speakers pointed to the 2030 Agenda as the roadmap for global recovery Post-COVID-19. The last part of the session focused on the great theme of the 2030 Agenda: “Leaving no one behind.”

Miguel Angel Velasco cmf

Member of the cmf Team at the UN