SDG action - front and center at UNGA high-level week

Heads of State and Governments from all over the globe will be convening in New York, at the United Nations Headquarters this September for the SDG Summit, marking a new chapter in the international progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

At the halfway point, with only 15 percent of targets likely to be met, the world is nowhere close to achieving the SDGs. This SDG Summit could not have come at a more critical time as the world is building back after the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, amidst the ‘polycrisis’ of climate change, rising cost of living, conflicts and global tensions. A whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach is now imperative to transition towards a more equitable, just, and sustainable world.

To  inspire all actors ahead of the SDG Summit, the United Nations is organizing an SDG Action Weekend at UN Headquarters. The SDG Action Weekend will consist of the SDG Mobilization Day on 16 September and the SDG Acceleration Day on 17 September. The SDG Mobilization Day will provide a space for all stakeholders, including those from civil society, youth groups, women's organizations, local and regional governments, the private sector and science and academia, to mobilize towards an ambitious SDG Summit through dedicated stakeholder sessions. The SDG Acceleration Day will be organized around the 12 high-impact initiatives, spearheaded by the UN development system, to highlight a set of transformative transitions and cross-cutting enablers that can be brought to scale to bring SDG achievement back on track.

The SDG Summit itself will take place on Monday, 18 September and Tuesday, 19 September 2023. It will consist of an opening segment, followed by six engaging Leaders Dialogues discussing themes of accelerated progress, integrated policies and public institutions, building resilience, financing SDG achievement, and the role of science, innovation and technology in policy and action.

“The SDG Summit in September must be a moment of unity to provide a renewed impetus and accelerated actions for reaching the SDGs” said UN Secretary General António Guterres.

To avoid passing on the burden of growing inequalities and a raging climate emergency onto future generations, this is a call the world needs to heed. The time has come to take transformative action today.

For more information:

SDG Summit

UN General Assembly High-level week

Photo credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elías