Sharing national best practices on the protection of forests, speakers today deliberated ways of enhancing sustainable forest management in achieving global forest goals and explored their linkages with other major international frameworks and agreements, as the United Nations Forum on Forests continued its session.
With 2023 a pivotal year for the United Nations Strategic Plan on Forests and the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, the United Nations Forum on Forests must identify concrete forest-based actions, address interlinkages and advance progress towards combating climate change and ensuring sustainable development, speakers today stressed as the Forum commenced its eighteenth session.
Speakers from around the globe underscored the vital role of inclusive planning and collective learning in harnessing data and artificial intelligence for sustainable development, as the Economic and Social Council concluded its two-day forum on science, technology and innovation.
The multiple crises of the last three years have dealt “a major blow” to the Sustainable Development Goals, requiring urgent action in sharing science, technology, innovation and digitalization to bridge that gap between haves and have-nots and ensure not just global progress, but survival, speakers told the Economic and Social Council today as it opened its two-day forum on the subject.
Closing its twenty-second session this afternoon, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues sent three draft decisions to the Economic and Social Council for formal adoption as it approved several recommendations on this year’s priority theme, “Indigenous Peoples, human health, planetary and territorial health and climate change: a rights-based approach”.
As the biggest gathering of the Economic and Social Council Youth Forum of all time concluded today, youth delegates and high-level Government and United Nations officials underscored the vital role of young people in policy and decision-making and their more enhanced engagement in related intergovernmental processes, particularly the upcoming Summit on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Youth-led and youth-focused initiatives and organizations must be fully supported by Governments, the private sector, and other key partners, with financing, mentorship, skills training, capacity-building, and safe spaces to ensure achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, speakers told the Economic and Social Council’s annual Youth Forum today, spotlighting the power of youth in designing solutions to address global challenges.
Young people must be included as equal partners in finding solutions and making decisions about the world’s most pressing challenges, speakers told the Economic and Social Council’s annual Youth Forum today, spotlighting how youth around the world are advancing progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and how the United Nations, Member States and other stakeholders should support their greater meaningful participation.
Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message to the 2023 Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum, held in New York and virtually from 25 to 27 April:
Expressing grave concern over recent shocks that are threatening sustainable development worldwide, the Economic and Social Council concluded its Financing for Development Forum today with the adoption of an outcome document aimed at reforming the international financial architecture in order to adapt to global economic changes and expedite progress towards realizing the Sustainable Development Goals.
