The Subregional Office for North and Central Asia is organizing the Seventh North and Central Asia Multi-Stakeholder Forum on the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG Forum). The SDG Forum facilitates dialogue and deliberations between government officials, civil society, think-tanks, academia, experts, and other stakeholders, providing a unique platform to share information on subregional implementation efforts, highlight subregional priorities and good practices. The outcomes and recommendations from the Forum feed into regional and global processes, including the Eleventh Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD) and the 2024 UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF).
The Decade of Action for Achieving the 2030 Agenda has been severely impacted by intersecting crises including food and energy process, COVID-19, climate change and geopolitical uncertainties, which has been heavily affecting countries and the people in North and Central Asia. ESCAP’s 2023 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) progress report finds that North and Central Asia is not on track to reach any of the 17 SDGs by 2030. Although some countries in the subregion achieved higher progress than the regional average in Asia and Pacific, the pace is slow. Significant progress has been achieved particularly towards Goal 1 (No Poverty) and Goal 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, while the subregion continues to regress on Goal 13 (Climate Action).
The subregion urgently needs sustainable, resilient, and innovative solutions to address these challenges in times of multiple interlinked crises. There is increasing divergence in social and economic outcomes within and across countries in the sub-region. The Tenth Asia-Pacific Sustainable Development Forum highlighted the paramount importance of regional cooperation and enhanced multi-stakeholder partnership in North and Central Asia to achieve a more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient recovery. Concerted efforts and actions from all stakeholders are needed to accelerate progress towards the 2030 goals.
Against this backdrop, the SDG Forum will examine inclusive, resilient, and sustainable strategies to address key challenges and identify priorities to accelerate the Goals of the 2030 Agenda. In alignment with the focus of the 2024 HLPF and APFSD, this year’s sub-regional forum will assess progress on the thematic SDGs of Goal 1 (No Poverty), Goal 2 (Zero Hunger), Goal 13 (Climate Action), Goal 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions) and Goal 17 (Partnership for the Goals).
