The Annual Ministerial Review, which will be held on 2-3 July 2008 at UN Headquarters in New York, will focus on "Implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to sustainable development ". This year, the Council, therefore, has an opportunity to:

• Assess the state of implementation;
• Explore key challenges in ensuring that the global consensus on sustainable development is translated into action at the national level;
• Promote the implementation of Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Programme of Implementation (JPOI);
• Contribute to the efforts to integrate the implementation of MDG7 with other MDGs;
• Consider recommendations and proposals for action, including new initiatives.

Preparations for the 2008 AMR session are under way. An e-Discussion (4 February -14 March 2008) marked the start of a series of AMR preparatory events. At the global level, an AMR global preparatory meeting was held on 6 March 2008. On 1-2 June 2008, the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain hosted a regional meeting on the theme "Sustainable Urbanization" that was organized by UNDESA.

Preparations for the AMR July session are also on track. Eight countries have come forward to make voluntary national presentations at the 2008 AMR. A new feature of this year's voluntary presentations is that it will also include developed countries. During the AMR thematic discussion participants will be able to discuss key issues on the sustainable development agenda, such as climate change. Leading experts including Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, C hair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Sir Nicholas Herbert Stern, author of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, have already confirmed their participation in the event .

The Annual Ministerial Review (AMR) is a new function of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) mandated by Heads of State and Government at the 2005 World Summit. Its purpose is to:

• Assess progress made towards the MDGs and the implementation of the other goals and targets agreed at the major UN conferences and summits over the past 15 years, which constitute the United Nations Development Agenda (UNDA).
• Contribute to scaling-up and accelerating action to realize the development agenda, by serving as global high-level forum with broad-based participation, where lessons learned are exchanged and successful practices and approaches that merit scaling-up are identified.

The theme for the 2009 Review is "Implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to global public health" . ECOSOC successfully held its first AMR in July 2007, which focused on the eradication of poverty and hunger.

• AMR in brief