#17goals17days: Progress made on Global Goals

High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development

11-20 July, UN Headquarters, New York

The United Nations’ High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) is happening 11-20 July at UN Headquarters in New York. It’s the essential platform for guiding global efforts to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by all member states in September 2015.

This year’s forum is the first since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. The session will include voluntary reviews of 22 countries and thematic reviews of progress already made toward the Goals—and some significant progress truly has been made. To draw attention to this forward progress and the forum, we’ll highlight the work done in one country toward each of the 17 SDGs every day from 4 July until the forum concludes on 20 July. You can follow the conversation on our Twitter and Facebook accounts using hashtag #17days17goals.

Check back every day through 20 July to find out what the UN, its agencies, Member States and civil society are doing for the SDGs!

Visit the official High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development website: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/hlpf

Visit the related ECOSOC 2016 High-level Segment website: https://www.un.org/ecosoc/en/events/2016

Member State inputs to the 2016 HLPF: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/hlpf/inputs
—–

#17days17goals

Goal 1: No Poverty
4 July 2016
Country: Georgia

Under the European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD), UNDP promotes agriculture development in Georgia’s Ajara Autonomous Republic as a foundation for food security, sustainable production and rural employment. The programme, expected to be completed by mid-2016, focuses on the assistance to small farmers and runs in close cooperation with the Ajara Government and the Ajara Agroservice Centre.

Goal 2: Zero Hunger
5 July 2016
Country: Philippines

According to the Philippines’ input to the HLPF, local civil society organizations this spring held a Voters’ Education Forum on Food and Nutrition Security which identified food and nutrition security policy proposals for prioritization in the legislative agenda of the next Congress.

Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being
6 July 2016
Country: Republic of Korea

In 2016, the Republic of Korea launched its “Safe Life for All” initiative, which builds on the goals to make this world safe and secure from infectious diseases. It aims to support the enhancement of health security partner countries to proactively prevent infectious diseases, detect them as early as possible, and respond rapidly to public health crises.

Goal 4: Quality Education
7 July 2016
Country: Norway

According to Norway’s input to the 2016 High-level Political Forum, global education—particularly girls’ education and education in emergencies—is one of their top priorities. The country announced recently it intends to allocate NOK 400 million (USD 48 million) for education in Syria and its neighbouring countries Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq for the period 2016–2018. It is planned that NOK 200 million of this funding, channelled through UNICEF, will be provided this year.

Goal 5: Gender Equality
8 July 2016
Country: Samoa

Last February, Samoans elected outright four women to its parliament—the most women ever—and the country’s ruling Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) selected Fiame Naomi Mata’afa to be the country’s first female deputy prime minister.

Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
9 July 2016
Country: Sierra Leone

A UNICEF-supported rehabilitation project, with the help of NGO partner Living Water, brought clean water to the Harry C. Primary School in Masorie, Sierra Leone, this April for the first time in a decade. In its input document to the 2016 High-level Political Forum, Sierra Leone says access to safe drinking water increased from 36.7 percent in 1990, to 62.6 percent in 2015.

Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
10 July 2016
Country: Estonia

In its input to the High-level Political Forum, Estonia points out its success in the heating sector, where a high share of renewable energy is used. Now the Baltic country is pushing ahead with ambitious plans for an offshore wind park in the Baltic Sea.

Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
11 July 2016
Country: Togo

Togo and UNDP in January 2016 announced the creation of the Community Development Emergency Programme to provide more than US$250 million over three years for the rural and vulnerable populations who make up nearly 62 per cent of the country’s population. The programme plans to involve communities in the development of basic socioeconomic infrastructures and rural entrepreneurship.

Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
12 July 2016
Country: Venezuela

Venezuela is in the process of implementing its Enabling Act of December 2015, meant to support social investments, infrastructure and public works. In its voluntary input to the 2016 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, Venezuela says about 60 percent of its 2016 national budget has been allocated to social investment.

Read Venezuela’s input to the 2016 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (Spanish only).

Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities
13 July 2016
Country: France

Gay men in France can now donate blood after a 30-year ban was lifted in July 2016. Reducing social inequalities at home is a priority for France, which in its input document calls for new social mobility drivers. A particular effort is being made in the most disadvantaged areas to identify the main factors of inequality and reduce them by means of education and training.

Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
14 July 2016
Country: Egypt

Egypt’s Social Housing Programme aims to improve the affordability of formal housing for low-income households. It’s expected to benefit about 3.6 million people in the lowest income groups and replace 150,000 housing units in slum areas by 2018.

Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
15 July 2016
Country: Colombia

Colombia has created an overall green growth strategy that aims for sustainable consumption and production across all regions and industries. In late 2015 the World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved a $700 million loan to support natural resource protection in the country.

Goal 13: Climate Action
16 July 2016
Country: Morocco

Morocco, which is hosting the 2016 UN Climate Change Conference (COP22) in November, is making great strides toward clean energy. The Noor solar project anticipates the construction of five solar power plants by 2020, totalling 2,000 MW of capacity. The first phase of the project, Noor-1 in Ouarzazate, inaugurated in February 2016, covers an area of 450 hectares. Ultimately, the program will save 3.7 million tons of CO2 emissions per year.

Goal 14: Life Below Water
17 July 2016
Country: Montenegro

Montenegro’s national strategy on integrated coastal zone management is built on data from UNEP, UNDP and the country’s own ecological footprint analysis. A special programme to achieve carbon neutral tourism is also in effect, urging business owners near the Adriatic Sea and in the country’s mountain lake areas to adopt more sustainable practices.

Goal 15: Life on Land
18 July 2016
Country: Madagascar

Biodiversity hotspot Madagascar, home to more than 70 species of migratory birds, hosted a conference on World Migratory Bird Day in May highlighting the impact of humans on these birds and encouraging more action.

Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

19 July 2016
Country: Uganda

Since 2013, UNDP has been working in partnership with UGANET to provide legal and social protection to vulnerable persons, particularly women and girls, on matters related to property and land rights.

Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals
20 July 2016
Country: Germany

Germany held five public dialogue conferences across the country with representatives of federal, state and communal-level government and those from the private sector, academia and civil society to discuss the requirements for a new Sustainability Strategy. The results were taken into account in the writing Germany’s Sustainable Development Strategy 2016.

Read Germany’s input to the 2016 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

#17days17goals: Progress made on Sustainable Development Goals