Director-General to participate in High-Level Segment of ECOSOC High-Level Political Forum

This upcoming week, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova will take part in the High-Level Segment of the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) convened from 18 to 20 July 2016 under the auspices of ECOSOC at UN Headquarters in New York.

This is the first HLPF after the historic adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It is expected to provide leadership and guidance on the effective implementation of the Agenda; keep track of progress; spur coherent policies based on evidence and country experiences; as well as identify new and emerging issues. The core part of the HLPF will be a series of voluntary national reviews from 22 countries and thematic reviews of progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, supported by input from the ECOSOC functional commissions and other inter-governmental bodies and forums.

The Director-General will on 20 July moderate a panel session of the High-Level Segment of the HLPF, dedicated to a forward-looking discussion on “Prospects for the future” which will bring discussants together around a projection into the future for the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals, based on possible scenarios, emerging key issues, and informed by scientific evidence where possible.

On 19 July, the Director-General will open, along with H.E. Ms Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway, and H.E. Mr Oh Joon, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the UN and President of ECOSOC, a HLPF high-level breakfast event on “SDG 4 – Education 2030: What policies and data to ensure that no one is left behind?”, co-organized by UNESCO and UNICEF, with the involvement of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. The event, which features several country presentations, is hosted by Morocco, Norway, and the Republic of Korea.

Other HLPF side-events (co)-organized by UNESCO include a side event on “‘Climate Services for Sustainable Water Resources Management” organized by UNESCO-IHP with WMO on 15 July; and a side event on “Out-of-school, out of sight? Reaching the millions of children and adolescents left behind”, co-organized by UNESCO-UIS, equally on 15 July 2016.

At the margins of the ECOSOC-HLPF, the Director-General will have several bilateral meetings.