One central pledge of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is to ensure that no one is left behind.
On 13 July the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) dedicated an entire session on this theme with a view to synthesize messages from earlier sessions that respond to the challenge of fulfilling the promise of leaving no one behind.
The Vice-Chair of the Committee for Development Policy (CDP), Professor Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, was invited to participate as lead discussant in this session. In her remarks Professor Fukuda-Parr stressed about the need to look beyond social policies. She pointed out that policies can only be effective in reaching this principle, if they include macroeconomic and fiscal policies conducive to leaving no one behind (LNOB). Professor Fukuda-Parr also talked about the work of the CDP on Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs), where the CDP analyzes the trends in VNR reporting, with LNOB being one of the core themes addressed. She reported that in the analysis it has become apparent that despite the majority of countries mentioning LNOB, very few report to have strategies towards its implementation.
The work of the CDP was also highlighted by the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Mr. Andrew Gilmour, in his keynote address where he stressed the following issues taken from the CDP report: there is insufficient advancement in key areas to leave no one behind compatible with the timeframe of the 2030 Agenda; in many different contexts, people are pushed further behind by a variety of forces; and it is not enough to look at those “left behind” at the bottom, but also necessary to look at the concentration of wealth and power at the top.
Finally, the CDP report was explicitly mentioned by the moderator, Mr. Manish Bapna from the World Resources Institute, in his closing statement. He quoted a passage directly from the report about the need to transform deeply-rooted systems based on unequal distribution of wealth and decision-making power.

Related links

Live webcast of the session
CDP report
CDP work on “Leaving no one behind”
CDP Background Paper No.46: Voluntary National Review Reports – What Do They Report?