Global mechanisms and forums

Currently, the Forum’s provisions for accountability of national governments are considered relatively weak: national reporting is voluntary, the interactive discussion on each VNR is very brief and has not met the substantive standards of other accountability processes in the UN system, and space for civil society participation in many aspects of the Forum is limited and not considered adequate for ensuring meaningful contributions. In addition, the technical preparations for the Forum are not linked to its high-level discussions in a way that ensures their findings and inputs are addressed.

While progress on inclusion and participation at the global level remains slow, there are efforts and initiatives to advance SDG16+ to ensure meaningful participation of civil society at the global level. Civil society can engage in various ways in the Forum:⁶

• Joining their government’s delegation to the HLPF when they present VNRs;
• Issuing their own reports on their government’s experiences with SDG implementation, or a “spotlight” or “shadow” report to be issued alongside the government’s report;
• Providing data or other information to be used in global stocktaking reports of SDG progress, including: the Secretary-General’s report on ‘Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals,’ which provides a global overview of “the current situation of the Goals” each year; and ‘The Sustainable Development Goals Report’ produced by the UN Statistics Division, which reviews the preceding year’s progress towards implementation. Both yearly updates draw on the available official data for the global indicators, which can be found in the Global SDG Indicators Database (https://unstats. un.org/sdgs/indicators/database/) and is sourced from the “custodian” UN agencies for each indicator;
• Participating at the global level in ways that domestic processes may not allow, including in the thematic/ SDG reviews held during the HLPF each July; and
• Advocacy with governments to shape the Ministerial Declaration adopted each year through intergovernmental negotiations leading up to the July session of the HLPF.

As part of its role as the global hub for review of the SDGs, the HLPF also serves to gather the results of the range of national, regional, international and thematic processes, mechanisms and institutions that have the potential to contribute to the follow-up and review. Thus, civil society actors can influence the Forum’s discussions and, by extension, the accountability of their own government, by contributing to processes that feed into the HLPF, such as:⁷

• Regional commissions’ dialogues that serve as preparation for the HLPF sessions;
• Expert Group Meetings on the specific SDGs under review each year; and
• Contributing to side events on HLPF margins that feed informally into governments’ discussions on SDG progress.

CSOs can also utilize the HLPF for forming partnerships and alliances with the thousands of civil society representatives and other actors gathered at HLPF meetings, to strengthen advocacy and accountability at home. Civil society participation in meetings of the HLPF is facilitated by the Outreach and Partnerships Branch in the Division for Sustainable Development Goals, which is part of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA).