HLPF 2018

On 9-18 July 2018, trade unions were at the UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) 2018. The theme for this year’s annual follow-up and review mechanism of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was ‘Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies’. It took place at the UN headquarters in New York.

Each year a different set of SDGs is selected for review, under a broader theme. This year, SDGs 6 (clean water and sanitation), 7 (affordable and clean energy, 11 (sustainable cities and communities), 12 (responsible consumption and production) and 15 (life on land) or selected for review, as well as SDG 17 (partnerships), which is under recurrent review at the HLPF. The Workers and Trade Unions Major Group submission is entitled towards sustainable and resilient societies that leave no one behind.

Read the full blog by Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the ITUC here

In addition, governments volunteer to report on national progress towards the realisation of the SDGs. Known as the Voluntary National Reviews, they “aim to facilitate the sharing of experiences, including successes, challenges and lessons learned, with a view to accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda”. Trade unions are conducting their own national monitoring and analysis (available here) to provide an independent assessment and make sure that governments are meeting their commitments. A new publication, entitled a trade union take on the SDGs provides an overview and extracts the highlights from this work.

Coordinated by the ITUC’s Trade Union Development Cooperation Network, a delegation of fourteen trade union representatives, including ITUC Africa, will be participating. They will be joining forces with Public Services International (PSI), to make up the Workers and Trade Unions Major Group.

Daily updates

Trade union voices

RadioLabour interviewed some key voices from the trade union movement ahead of and during the HLPF:

Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation and Samantha Smith, Director of the Just Transition Centre:

Rosa Pavanelli, the General Secretary of Public Services International:

Julius Cainglet of the Federation of Free Workers in the Philippines:

André Oktay Dahl of the Unio labour federation in Norway:

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Further information:

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