In April 2021, the ISC invited comments to the Scientific and Technological Community Major Group position paper for the 2021 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.
The ISC, together with the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), leads the UN Major Group for Science and Technological Community (STC MG) for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Its mandate is to promote science and to strengthen the scientific basis of decision-making and governance of sustainable development.
The STC MG compiles and submits every year a position paper on the theme of the annual High-level Political Forum (HLPF), which is the annual intergovernmental forum where countries report and review progress on the achievement of the SDGs. The primary audience of the position paper is UN Member States and permanent missions, and the position paper is included in the official documentation of the HLPF.
The 2021 HLPF will take place from 6 – 15 July 2021 on the theme “Sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that promotes the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development: building an inclusive and effective path for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda in the context of the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development”. Several SDGs will be reviewed, including SDG 1 (no poverty), SDG 2 (zero hunger), SDG 3 (good health and well-being), SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG 10 (reduced inequalities), SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production) and SDG 13 (climate action).
In line with the focus of the HLPF for 2021 on sustainable and resilient recovery, the position paper seeks to bring together the latest scientific evidence and thinking from the S&T community in order to set out ways to advance progress on the SDGs throughout the Decade of Action while living with and through the COVID-19 pandemic. The position paper seeks to reflect on how the current context, devastating as it has been for so many, also provides a window of opportunity – a leverage point – from where to steer radical system transformation towards desired outcomes.
A first draft of the position paper draws on a first round of inputs received from a number of ISC affiliated bodies including the Global Research Programme on Inequality (GRIP), Future Earth, the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) and the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR). We would now like to invite contributions from the ISC membership and the wider scientific community.
Image by the UNDP via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)