[2021-22] Sustainable Development Transformation Forum

Documents

CONCEPT NOTE & AGENDA (updated as of 1 March 2022)

SPEAKERS' BIOGRAPHIES (updated as of 1 March 2022)

INCHEON COMMUNIQUÉ (updated as of 18 March 2022)

REPORT (updated as of 26 April 2022)

Recordings

Day 1: Recording

Day 2: Recording

Day 3: Recording

Day 4: Recording

Background

UNOSD contributes to building, exchanging, and facilitating the use of knowledge in support of sustainable development. One of UNOSD’s flagship activities to fulfil this goal is the annual Sustainable Development Transformation Forum (SDTF), which normally gathers around a hundred people in Incheon City at the end of October every year. However, due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the 2020 SDTF originally scheduled for October 2020, had to be postponed to February 2021, and held online only. Although the UNOSD had kept up hope to hold the next SDTF fully in person in Incheon up to very recently, it had to back away from this option. Hence the next edition of UNOSD’s 2021-22 work plan, will be held online again this year.

As in most of previous editions of the SDTF, this year’s Forum will follow the thread of the forthcoming High-level Political Forum (HLPF 2022), which has the overarching theme of Building back better from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The SDTF will feature the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will go under in-depth review during the HLPF in July 2022, namely SDGs 4 on quality education, 5 on gender equality, 14 on life below water, 15 on life on land, and 17 on partnerships for the Goals. The 2022 edition of the SDTF will also strive to examine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on SDGs 4, 5, 14, 15 and 17 but also across all the SDGs given the integrated nature of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Objectives

The overarching objective of the 2022 SDTF is closely linked to the HLPF 2022, aiming to offer a platform for capacity building, policy dialogue and knowledge sharing for building back better from the COVID-19 pandemic and advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The SDTF will aim to achieve a better understanding of success, challenges, lessons learned, and good practices related to the implementation of SDGs 4, 5, 14, 15 and 17, the impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on those and across all the SDGs, and identify potential solutions to advance the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Format, Date and Time

The Forum will take place through a series of 2.5-hour online sessions over four days from 28 February to 3 March 2022 (inclusive), 8:00pm to 10:30pm, Korea Standard Time (KST).

Programme and Agenda

Day 1 (28 February 2022)

Theme: Quality Education – Advancing the 2030 Agenda through Education, Vocational Training and Capacity Building

Moderator: Mr. Jean D'Aragon, Senior Sustainable Development Expert, UNOSD

Opening Remarks:  

• Mr. Liu Zhenmin, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs (video)
• H.E. Ms. Han Jeoung Ae, Minister of Environment, Republic of Korea (video)
• Mr. Chun Kyoo Park, Head of Office, UNOSD
• H.E. Ambassador Mr. Toru Morikawa, Executive Director, Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)

Moderator: Mr. Darren Swanson, UNOSD Consultant

Speakers:

• Mr. Manos Antoninis, Director of Team, Global Education Monitoring Report Team, UNESCO
  • Advancing the 2030 Agenda through education, vocational training and capacity building
• Mr. Louis Meuleman, Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA), Founder/Director, PublicStrategy for Sustainable Development and visiting professor at the Public Governance Institute of the University of Leuven, Belgium
• Mr. Oliver Liang, Head, Public and Private Services Unit, Sectoral specialist: education, culture, media, sport, Sectoral Policies Department, International Labour Organization (ILO)
• Ms. Reka Tozsa, Senior Project Manager, Higher Education Programme, Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF); Mr. Edizon Fermin, Vice President for Academic Affairs, National Teachers College, The Philippines
  • Inclusion as the Key to Build Back a Better Higher Education System
  • Enabling Acces to Success During and Beyond the Pandemic
• Ms. Alicia Quezada, Latin America Director, Practical Action, Peru
  • PATHWAYS OF CHANGE for education and resilience in Peru and Latin America

External Resources:

• SDG4 Quality Education
• UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Reports
• ARC8 Outlook Report 2030: Inclusive and Diverse Higher Education in Asia and Europe
• ASEM National Equity Policies in Higher Education Report
• ASEM Education 2030 Strategy Paper
• ASEF Capacity Building Workshop on Advancing Inclusion in International Higher Education in ASEAN
• ASEF Capacity Building Workshop on Equitable Access and Success in Higher Education

Day 2 (1 March 2022)

Theme: Gender Equality – A Gender Perspective on Building Back Better from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Moderators:

• Mr. Darren Swanson, UNOSD Consultant
• Ms. Grażyna Pulawska, Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)

Speakers:

• Ms. Sarah Hendriks, Director, Policy, Programme & Intergovernmental Division, UN Women
  • Beyond COVID-19: A Feminist Plan for Sustainability and Social Justice
• Ms. Cynthia McDougall, Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute
  • Building forward better: Why pandemic recovery needs to embrace transformation to achieve equality
• Ms. Angela Mwai, Chief a.i., Human Rights and Social Inclusion Unit, Urban Practices Branch, Global Solutions Division, UN-Habitat
• Ms. Amanda Austin, Head of Policy and Advocacy, Equal Measures 2030
  • We're making progress ... but far too slowly
• Ms. Mrinalini Venkatachalam, Regional Director, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Oceania, WEConnect International
  • Supporting corporations and women-owned businesses to connect and succeed in global value chains

External Resources:

• SDG5 Gender Equality
• UNCTAD COVID-19 threatens four "lost decades' for gender equality 
• UN Women Handbook on gender mainstreaming for gender equality results
• UN Women Disability Inclusion markers
• Policy Brief: Inclusive Food Value Chains

Day 3 (2 March 2022)

Theme: Life Below Water – How the Oceans can help us fight against, and recover from COVID-19 and deliver the SDGs

Moderators:

• Mr. Darren Swanson, UNOSD Consultant
• Ms. Grażyna Pulawska, Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)

Speakers:

• Mr. Kim Hyun-tae, Director General of International Cooperation Policy Bureau, Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Republic of Korea (video)
• Mr. Sai S. Navoti, Chief, SIDS Unit, Division for Sustainable Development Goals, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, New York, USA
  • Life Below Water: How the Ocean can help us fight against, and recover from COVID-19 and deliver the SDGs
• Hon. Mr. Andy Labonte, Member of the National Assembly, Republic of Seychelles
  • Life Below Water: How the Ocean can help us fight against, and recover from COVID-19 and deliver the SDGs
• Mr. Yegor Volovik, Coordinator, Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP), Regional Coordinating Unit, Ecosystems Integration Branch, Ecosystems Division, United Nations Environment Programme, Toyama City, Japan
  • NOWPAP and the Sustainable Development Goals
• Ms. Cornelia E. Nauen, President, Mundus maris – Sciences and Arts for Sustainability, Brussels
  • SDG 14 - People on change journeys for implementation
• Mr. Harmen Spek, Innovation & Solutions Lead, Plastic Soup Foundation
  • A deep dive into the world of plastic and its effects on SDG-14

External Resources:

• SDG14 Life Below Water
• UN Ocean Conference
• The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030)
• The Global Ocean Science Report 2020
• Policy Brief: Single-Use Plastic Waste Reduction Efforts in Asia and Europe

Day 4 (3 March 2022)

Theme: Life on Land – How COVID-19 recovery and 2030 Agenda can only be fully achieved through addressing SDG 15

Moderators:

• Mr. Darren Swanson, UNOSD Consultant
• Ms. Grażyna Pulawska, Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)

Speakers:

• Mr. Pierre Boileau, Head, Global Environment Outlook, UN Environment
  • Life on Land, where does your food come from?
• Ms. Ingeborg Niestroy, Project Leader, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS); Mr. Raphael Weyland, Head of Brussels Office, Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU)
  • EU's SDG Implementation: European Green Deal for SDG 15
• Ms. Grażyna Pulawska, Acting Director, Sustainable Development & Public Health Department, Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF); Ms. Riko Kimoto, Manager for International Public Health, Sustainable Development & Public Health Department, Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)
  • Asia-Europe Environment Forum(ENVforum) and its involvement in the 2030 Agenda implementation
• Mr. Laszlo Pinter, Head, Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Central European University
  • Build Back Better with Nature-Based Solutions
• Ms. Mariaelena Huambachano, Professor Environmental Humanities and Indigenous Studies, Syracuse University, NY, USA
  • If the land is healthy, our foods, and ourselves will be healthy: Revival of Indigenous Food Sovereignty
• Ms. Gertrude Kabusimbi Kenyangi, Executive Director, Support for Women in Agriculture and Environment (SWAGEN), Uganda
  • Africa's Forest Ecosystems and COVID 19: How do we build back and forward better?

Moderator: Mr. Jean D'Aragon, Senior Sustainable Development Expert, UNOSD

Closing Remarks:

• H.E. Ambassador Mr. Léon Faber, Deputy Executive Director, ASEF
• Mr. Jean D'Aragon, Senior Sustainable Development Expert, UNOSD

External Resources:

• SDG15 Life on Land
• UN Environment’s sixth Global Environment Outlook (2019)
• Policy Brief: Agriculture
• Policy Brief: SMEs & Food Circularity
• Policy Brief: Food Policy & Security
• Policy Brief: International Food Trade
• ENVforum Annual Conference 2021 “Circular Food Systems”

Organizers

The 2021-22 SDTF is organized by the United Nations Office for Sustainable Development (UNOSD) of UN DESA, Division for Sustainable Development Goals (UN DESA-DSDG) in collaboration with the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF).

Target audience

The Forum aims to bring together an international audience composed of national government officials and experts responsible for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, as well as representatives of regional and international organizations, including the United Nations, and of civil society and private sector. The Forum will also be open to other non-government experts working in the areas of SDG implementation at the national, regional, and local levels. It will also welcome academia, youth, and other interested stakeholders to ensure an inclusive and integrated discussion on sustainable accelerated solutions for COVID-19 recovery and the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals.

Contact Information

For any questions or comments about the progarmme, please contact Mr. Jean D’Aragon, Senior Sustainable Development Expert, UNOSD at daragon@un.org.

For any technical issues, for instance, difficulties to register to the different sessions, please contact Mr. JinHyun Lee, Team Assistant, UNOSD at jinhyun.lee@un.org.

Disclaimer: 

For the purpose of this event, UNOSD procures the services of Cisco Webex, an external service provider. Registration for this webinar is supported by the Webex Events registration mechanism and does not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities