Background
The High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) will be convened in New York from 14 to 23 July 2025. The theme of the 2025 High Level Political Forum (HLPF) is “Advancing sustainable, inclusive, science- and evidence-based solutions for the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs for leaving no one behind”. The 2025 HLPF will have an in-depth review of Sustainable Development Goals 3 – Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, 5 – Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, 8 – Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all, 14 – Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development, and 17 – Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development.
Ten years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, the 2025 HLPF will assess progress on these Goals and identify sustainable, inclusive, science- and evidence-based solutions to advance SDG implementation in the remaining five years. The HLPF will identify interlinkages with other intergovernmental processes in 2025, including the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (Beijing+30), the Third United Nations Ocean Conference, the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), and the Second World Summit on Social Development, creating synergies that underscore the interconnectedness of these processes with the SDGs. The 2025 HLPF will support the implementation of the Political Declaration of the 2023 SDG Summit and contribute to the follow-up of the Summit of the Future and its Pact for the Future.
In preparation for the review of SDG 14 – and its role in advancing sustainable development across the 2030 Agenda, the Division for Sustainable Development Goals of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA/DSDG), together with other partners, are organizing an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on SDG 14 – and its role in advancing sustainable development across the 2030 Agenda – in support of the HLPF’s in-depth review.
This event will help inform the HLPF, including the planning of its sessions, and contribute to the evidence base for work on life below water going forward from 2025.
In addition, the HLPF Review of SDG 14 and the UN Ocean Conference are mutual complementary processes. The 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference will be co-hosted by the Governments of Costa Rica and France and held in Nice, France a month ahead of the 2025 HLPF, from 9 to 13 June 2025. The overarching theme of the Conference is “Accelerating action and mobilizing all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean”. The Conference aims to support further and urgent action to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development and identify further ways and means to support the implementation of SDG 14. It will build on existing instruments to form successful partnerships towards the swift conclusion and effective implementation of ongoing processes that contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean. The UN Ocean Conference will provide an important basis for the work of the HLPF in reviewing Goal 14, including through providing information on lessons learned, reflections on actions taken, and proposed new directions and innovations for scaling up implementation. The HLPF review of SDG 14 and its targets will serve to guide the efforts of the action oriented Voluntary Commitments stemming from the UN Ocean Conference as these move towards implementation. Results from the 2025 SDG 14 EGM will also feed into the preparation and discussions of the 2025 UN Ocean Conference.
Announcements
