UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY HIGH-LEVEL MEETING ON MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIES
11 MAY 2023, TRUSTEESHIP COUNCIL CHAMBER, UN HEADQUARTERS
Overview
In accordance with General Assembly Resolution 76/215 adopted on 17 December 2021 entitled “Development cooperation with middle-income countries”, the President of the General Assembly will convene a High-level Meeting on Middle-Income Countries on 11 May 2023 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 to 6 p.m., in the Trusteeship Council Chamber, at the United Nations Headquarters, New York.
The High-Level meeting will discuss the gaps and challenges of middle–income countries in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, with a focus on the environmental dimension of sustainable development.
Theme and objective
The High-level Meeting is being held under the theme “Accelerating the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in middle-income countries, with a focus on the environmental dimension” and organized to take stock of the gaps and challenges of middle-income countries in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, and promote implementation of the SDGs through practical, evidence- and science-based solutions. The discussions will also address the current socio-economic fallout from the pandemic and how it has underlined and exacerbated existing fragilities, with negative and severe consequences for achieving the SDGs, considering the interlinkages among the environmental, economic and social dimensions. The high-level meeting aims to:
- Take stock of the gaps and bottlenecks in MICs in addressing environmental challenges which hinder sustainable development;
- Identify solutions for promoting the achievement of the environmental dimension of sustainable development as the catalyzers for the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and propose action-oriented steps forward;
- Assess the effectiveness of the development support to MICs by the UN development system in the environmental dimension and identify measures that advance progress through a whole-of-system approach;
- Enhance partnership and synergy among Member States, all sectors of society, domestic and international partners to accelerate action to address environmental challenges and boost sustainable development in MICs; and,
- Discuss measurements of sustainable development that go beyond GDP to better reflect the progress of sustainable development across all dimensions and guide national policymaking and development cooperation.
Format
The High-level Meeting will take place in person. For the interactive panel discussions, each panelist will make a 3-5-minutes presentation and answer questions from the moderator, followed by interaction with representatives in the conference room. There will be no pre-established list of speakers. Participants wishing to take the floor during the interactive discussions are invited to press the microphone button. Member States are encouraged to consider including in their national delegations to the high-level meeting ministers from all relevant ministries, as well as representatives such as parliamentarians, mayors and governors, representatives of civil society, including non-governmental organizations, and organizations and networks, indigenous leadership, community organizations and faith-based organizations, academia, philanthropic foundations, and the private sector, with due regard to gender equity.
The High-level Meeting will be open to ECOSOC-accredited NGOs.
The meeting will be webcast on UN WebTV.
Outcome
The President of the General Assembly will compile and circulate a brief summary of the Highlevel Meeting, and it will feed into the Secretary-General’s report on the implementation of the General Assembly resolution 76/215.
