New York, USA. The High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) is the central platform of the United Nations for the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This HLPF takes place every year for eight days in July, under the auspices of the Economic Social Council (ECOSOC) at the United Nations headquarters in New York. This includes a three-day ministerial segment also.

This year’s HLPF is taking place from July 9 to 19. The Theme of the year is “Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies.” The HLPF is reviewing the progress towards SDGs and focusing on Goals 6,7,11,12 15, 17. As part of its follow-up and review mechanism, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development encourages Member States to conduct regular and inclusive review of the country’s progress at the national and sub-national levels. It is called Voluntary National Review (VNR). The VNR aims to facilitate the sharing of experiences, including success, challenges and lessons learned, with the view of accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. There are 47 countries presenting their VNR report this year. Among them are the following countries, where Claretians are present: Australia, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Poland, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Uruguay and Vietnam. As a preparation to HLPF, Proclade Internazionale (Claretian presence in the UN), on behalf of the NGO working Group on Mining conducted a survey on ‘2030 Agenda and Mining’ among the Claretians who are in the VNR countries of this year.

Fr. Miguel Angel Velasco, CMF of Solidarity and Mission of the Claretian Province of Santiago Province in Spain and Fr. Rohan Dominic, CMF, Claretian Representative to the UN are participating in the HLPF and following the reviewing of SDGs and the VNRs. They are also attending many side events that are relate to the Sustainable Development Goals and 2030 Agenda.