Global Sustainable Development Report

The Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR) is a United Nations publication aiming to strengthen the science-policy interface at the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development, which replaced the Commission on Sustainable Development after Rio+20 as the main United Nations platform providing political leadership and guidance on sustainable development issues at the international level.

In September 2015, UN Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which gives the GSDR a role in the follow-up and review of the new Agenda (paragraph 83): The high-level political forum will also be informed by the Global Sustainable Development Report, which shall strengthen the science-policy interface and could provide a strong evidence-based instrument to support policymakers in promoting poverty eradication and sustainable development.

As outlined in the Rio+20 outcome document, the HLPF would, as one of its functions, "strengthen the science-policy interface through review of documentation bringing together dispersed information and assessments, including in the form of a global sustainable development report, building on existing assessments" (§85k). The GSDR will therefore adopt an assessment-of-assessments approach, documenting and describing the landscape of information on specific issues that are policy-relevant in field of sustainable development. The report does not compete with new assessments and other substantive reports and assessments being prepared by the UN system and outside.

The report will be global in coverage while taking into account the perspectives of the five UN regions. Extensive inputs will be sought from the UN system, including the Regional Commissions, scientists, government officials and stakeholders at all levels, including representatives of academies of sciences, of key international assessments, and relevant UN expert groups.

Going forward, the GSDR process will proceed according to the preferences expressed by Member States at the HLPF.

• GSDR 2023
• GSDR 2019 - The Future is Now: Science for Achieving Sustainable Development
• GSDR 2016 - Ensuring that no one is left behind
• GSDR 2015
• GSDR 2014 - Prototype edition

Scope and methodology

• Letter from the President of ECOSOC on the process of consultations on the scope, methodology and frequency of the Global Sustainable Development Report
• Background note for consultations on the scope, methodology and frequency of the Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR)
• E/2014/87 - Options for scope and methodology for a global sustainable development report
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