Background
The High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) 2025 will convene from July 14-23 in New York under the theme "Advancing sustainable, inclusive, science- and evidence-based solutions for the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs for leaving no one behind." As the global platform for tracking progress on the 2030 Agenda, this year’s forum will include an in-depth review of Sustainable Development Goal 8 (SDG 8): Promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all.
The review will assess progress, challenges, and interlinkages with other SDGs, marking a critical moment to accelerate action during the 10th anniversary of the 2030 Agenda. With only five years left until the target year, the forum will explore solutions to advance SDG 8’s ambitious objectives of eradicating poverty, tackling inequality, and fostering inclusive growth.
Ahead of the HLPF, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) organized a UN Expert Group Meeting on SDG 8 in New York, from 6 to 7 February 2025. The meeting took stock of where we are in terms of SDG8 progress, identify lessons learned over the past 10 years (success stories, areas of concern), identify innovative solutions, consider new issues that have emerged recently, reflect on ways to harness the political momentum from the SDG Summit and the Summit of the Future, and chart a future way forward for longer-term progress beyond 2030. Please refer to the concept note for more information. The meeting built on the findings of the last in-depth review of SDG8 in 2019 (meeting report).
The present meeting helped informing the HLPF, assisting in planning its sessions, and contribute toward identifying collaborations and programmes of work on SDG 8 going forward from 2025.
The Report of the Expert Group Meeting on SDG8 is now available. Based on the deliberations in the meeting, the Secretariat prepared both a Secretariat Background Note for the SDG8 session at the 2025 HLPF, as well as a more in-depth Technical Background Paper for the 2025 HLPF Thematic Review of SDG 8.
Announcements
The Report of the Expert Group Meeting on SDG8 (PDF) is now available.
Based on the meeting deliberations, a Secretariat Background Note has been issued to support the discussions at the SDG 8 session of the 2025 HLPF.
Based on the meeting deliberations, ILO and DESA colleagues prepared and in-depth Technical Background Paper for the 2025 HLPF Thematic Review of SDG 8.
The HLPF thematic review session of SDG8 will take place at UN headquarters in New York, from 10:10 to 13:00 on 16 July 2025 (Web link).
Meeting report
Background documents
