SDG Summit & CSO Forum Update

During the UNGA high-level week all UN Grounds Passes for ECOSOC-accredited organizations will be suspended, as is the usual practice. All representatives from the Major Groups and other Stakeholders will require a Special Event Ticket (SET) and a government-issued photo ID to pass through the NYPD security barrier at 2nd Avenue, as well as to pass through the security gate to enter the United Nations building. The Special Event Ticket will display the name of the approved registrant as well as the date, time and location indicating when and where the ticket will be valid.

There are a number of other summits, high-level meetings and events taking place at the UN during the week. With regard to registration, I only have up-to-date information about the SDG Summit and the CSO Forum. Different UN Departments/ Divisions are responsible for each of the other summits, high-level meetings and events.

SDG Summit

On 24 and 25 September 2019, Heads of State and Government will gather at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to follow up and comprehensively review progress in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The event is the first UN summit on the SDGs since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda in September 2015.

• Registration – The United Nations Department of Safety and Security has provided strict instructions that a Special Event Ticket will be required for each of the summits, high-level meetings and events taking place during the week. Participants will not have the flexibility to move from one conference room to another without an SET, as happened at the HLPF in July. Participants must register to obtain an SET for the SDG Summit.

Please note that the registration process is different from the July HLPF process. Due to the limited number of seats, registration alone for the event will not guarantee approval for your participation. Once an applicant has registered, that registration must be approved by the United Nations to obtain a Special Event Ticket.​​​ Therefore, Indico Conference Focal Points will not be able to approve the registration of members from their own organization, as happened at the HLPF in July. Please do not write to UN DESA requesting approval, the process will take time. 

Applicants will be required to submit a signed letter of authorization from the President or CEO of their organization on the letterhead of the organization, stating that the applicant has been nominated to attend the meeting as the official representative of the organization. This must be submitted in order complete registration.

Registration for the SDG Summit will open tomorrow at 12pm, Friday 23 August 2019 (EST – New York time). It will remain open until midnight on Friday, 6 September 2019. Applicants can access the Indico registration page via the SDG Summit website under ‘Registration’. The link will also be shared with the MGoS Coordination Mechanism mailing list. Please do not wait until the deadline to register, there will be not be an extension to this deadline.

• Seating – The MGoS will have the 12 ‘at desk’ nameplate seats in the observer section of the Trusteeship Council Chamber. There will also be a fixed amount of seats available in the public gallery. There will also be an overflow room in Conference Room 9. The registration process above relates to this seating. There are 3 sessions throughout the course of the SDG Summit (as below). Each session will require a different Special Event Ticket. This to ensure that the maximum number of registrants can participate. Each applicant will be asked to list, in order of preference, which session they want to attend.

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  • Tuesday 24 September, 3pm – 6pm
  • Wednesday 25 September, 10am – 1pm
  • Wednesday 25 September, 3pm – 6pm

• Leaders’ Dialogues – As you are aware, the Steering Group submitted nominations for 6 MGoS Speakers during the Leaders’ Dialogues. The nominations have been approved and invitations letters are currently being sent out. Due to the limited time and number of speakers during each Leaders’ Dialogue it is unlikely that there will be time for additional interventions for the floor.

CSO Forum

• Date, Time & Location - In accordance with A/RES/67/290, which envisions space for stakeholders to organize events in cooperation with Member States and the Secretariat, UN DESA has been working intensively to secure a dedicated space for stakeholders at the margins of the SDG Summit, in order to feature their contributions, practices and forward-looking actions towards the Decade of Delivery. We are pleased to inform you that we have managed to secure Conference Room 4, UNHQ, on 24 September, from 5.00pm to 8.00pm, for a dedicated CSO Forum. The Organising Partners of the MGoS will soon conduct processes to seek nominations for speakers for the Forum. We are currently working to open registration next week.

Useful Links

SDG Summit  |  SDG Acceleration Actions |  SDG Media Zone  |  SDG Action Zone

Kind regards,

Gwilym Roberts-Harry

Office of Intergovernmental Support and Coordination for Sustainable Development
Department of Economic and Social Affairs