Latest information on HLPF 2017

Briefing by DESA

The following information has been provided by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) at a meeting of the HLPF Major Group and other Stakeholders (MGoS) Co-ordinating Mechanism (CM).

Registration

• Registrations for the HLPF are open until 11 June for NGOs accredited with ECOSOC and NGOs that are part of the CSD roster. Please check more relevant information on the registration link: bit.ly/HLPF2017 and on the e-mail entitled 2017 HLPF: Registration by MGoS now open (deadline 11 June 2017). As per usual practice, NGOs in consultative status can use their annual badges to enter the premises. Each organization is entitled to have 7 annual badges. In addition, each organization can request up to 9 temporary badges for the HLPF to be issued by UN Pass and ID
• To assist those who do not have consultative status, a special arrangement has been made, with each MGoS identifying one organization that can bring up to 50 representatives under their umbrella. Information is available on the website. Please see this list to identify the focal point of your constituency

Meetings

• The draft programme for the 2017 HLPF was released on May 11^th and is available at https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/hlpf#programme
• Following the good practice of last year, DESA will be partnering up with the CM to organize a pre-HLPF meeting for MGoS on the Sunday before the session starts (July 9th). A work stream will be established to organize this meeting
• The HLPF will feature a dedicated session with MGoS on Tuesday, 11 July, afternoon. The CM has created a task team with whom DESA will be putting together the proposed programme for the session. They have shared a preliminary proposal with the members of the task team and look forward to working on it further together with the task team
• On Wednesday, 19 July, with generous funding from the UN Foundation, DESA will be organizing a breakfast for Ministers from VNR countries and MGoS for about 70 participants.  More details will follow
• The deadline for submitting requests for side events was 10 May. The secretariat is reviewing the over 200 requests received
• A call is open for suggestions for the learning and training centre (deadline 2 June). Please click here to download the application form

Documents

• The sectoral papers have been received by DSD. They have already been compiled and submitted to DGACM for processing and translation
• Background notes on SDGs reviewed in depth during the HLPF can be found at https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/hlpf under the “background notes” tab
• DSD expects to receive reports on MGoS implementation of the Agenda, in accordance with para. 89
• The 44 VNR countries are preparing their reports and we expect to receive those over the course of June. The countries have also been asked to submit “main messages” of their reports that will be compiled and issued as a document. A number of these “main messages” have been received and are posted on the VNR website
• As was the case last year, functional commissions and other intergovernmental platforms and bodies have also submitted inputs to the HLPF. The inputs received have been posted on the website. The UN system has prepared a number of background papers and other information that relates to the theme of the HLPF and that is also available on the website

Opportunities for participation

• Speaking opportunities. A call for eminent experts from MGoS that could be invited by the President of ECOSOC to speak in the different thematic round table sessions has been circulated. DESA will work with the HLPF CM to prepare a short list of names for the President’s final consideration, taking into account gender/geography/constituency balance. They expect to be able to fund a limited number of these speakers. The deadline for this nomination process was 26 May with more than 190 nominations being received
• MGoS can also speak during the interactive Q&As
• 1-2 individuals who could ask questions during the VNRs
• They can sign up to speak during the general debate
• Organize side events
• Submit papers

Funding

• Through a generous EC grant there is some funding for representatives of MGoS from the developing country VNRs to come to the HLPF. There has been an open call for funding with more than 300 applications being received. DESA will work with the Steering Group to select the funded participants;

Ministerial declaration

• The Permanent Representatives of Austria and Jamaica have been appointed as co-facilitators of the HLPF Ministerial Declaration. On 26 May, they held a briefing with MGoS on the key elements of the MD. More than 50 representatives from MGoS attended the meeting. The facilitators plan to circulate a zero draft on 7 June and convene consultations between 15-30 June

HLPF CM Mailing list

• The HLPF CM will be transitioning to a new mailing list, where all participants will be dully registered, to foster transparency and information sharing among stakeholders. The new list will be operational on 12 June. A link to sign up is available on the MGoS HLPF page: bit.ly/MGoS_mailinglist

Briefing by HLPF CM Steering Group

Please click here to see the work streams and join. The Steering Group encourages all colleagues to check this link and register for the work streams as some activities will need extra coordination

Advocacy team: The HLPF CM needs to get together in terms of contacting Member States on its HLPF recommendations, to consider MGoS reports and to come up with concrete recommendations

Communications group has had one skype call. It will share joint comms plan for MGoS in a couple of weeks

Plans for the MGoS preparatory meeting are moving along well thanks to DESA. Still waiting to see who the participants are to populate the program with speakers. Chris Dekki of DESA has been taking the lead on this, will be coming back in early June

On the proposed morning dialogues with VNR countries, Jeff Huffines reported that the ECOSOC bureau felt that there wasn’t enough time in the HLPF schedule to accommodate this, so DESA will look for a time and venue for a proposed side event between MGoS and interested VNR countries. There will also be a breakfast meeting 8-9 am on 18 July between Ministers of VNR countries and MGoS representatives

Next HLPF CM meeting: 25 May 2017, S-26MM3 (Secretariat Building)

The next meeting of the MGoS HLPF CM will take place on June 15^th, at 10 am. Room S-26MM3 has been booked for this purpose. Please see Webex details below:

HLPF CM General Meeting 

Thursday, June 15, 2017 
10:00 am  |  Eastern Daylight Time (New York, GMT-04:00)  |  1 hr  

Meeting number: 795 967 927 
Meeting password: Meet1234