A meeting will kick off on Monday at the headquarters of the UN in New York to review presentations by 22 Member States, including Egypt and Morocco, on their plans to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development plan which was unanimously adopted at a summit meeting last September, said the UN office in Cairo in a press release.

The 2016 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), which is the central platform for guiding global efforts on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), will be meeting from 11 to 20 July under the theme "Ensuring that no one is left behind". 

The Forum brings together representatives of governments, businesses and civil society.

The Sustainable Development Goals, which are the cornerstone of the 2030 Agenda, aim to end poverty, address inequalities and tackle climate change, while leaving no one behind. 

The Forum will consist of a five-day expert level meeting and a three-day ministerial meeting. It will adopt a Ministerial Declaration and is expected to provide political leadership, guidance and recommendations on the 2030 Agenda’s implementation and follow-up; keep track of progress of the SDGs; spur coherent policies informed by evidence, science and country experiences; as well as address new and emerging issues.

The HLPF session, the first since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, will include voluntary reviews of 22 countries and thematic reviews of progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, including cross-cutting issues, supported by reviews by the United Nations Economic and Social Council’s functional commissions and other inter-governmental bodies and forums.

The 22 countries presenting voluntary reviews are: China, Colombia, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Madagascar, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Norway, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Switzerland, Togo, Turkey, Uganda, and Venezuela.

Source: MENA