Arab Forum for Sustainable Development, 2019

09

-

11

April

2019

Location:

Beirut, Lebanon

Theme:

2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Economic Development and Integration, Macroeconomic and Sectoral Policies Coordination, Financing for Development, Economic Development and Poverty, Governance and Conflict Issues, Conflict Mitigation & Resilience, Gender and Women Issues, Women Peace and Security, Natural Resources, Climate Change, Social Development, International Migration, Statistics, Development Indicators, Technology for Development

Event Type:

Forum

The Arab Forum for Sustainable Development (AFSD) is an annual high-level regional platform, where multiple stakeholders discuss coordination pathways for the implementation, follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the Arab region. Its findings and recommendations, conveying key messages from the region and its countries, will be presented at the 2019 High-Level Political Forum (HLPF).

This year, AFSD-2019 will be held during the fourth year following the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The year 2019 marks the end of the first four-year cycle of follow-up and review whereby the global review of all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be completed. In addition to the HLPF in July held under the auspices of ECOSOC, a Leaders’ Summit will be held under the auspices of the UN General Assembly in September 2019 in New York.

Over three days, the programme of the AFSD-2019 on the theme “Empowering People and Ensuring Inclusiveness and Equality in the Arab Region” features a variety of plenaries, special sessions and workshop-style special events. The main components of the Forum are as follows:

Component 1 – Global and regional progress including reviews of specific goals
This component takes stock of global and regional progress on the 2030 Agenda and includes reviews of specific SDGs. Through plenary and special sessions, this component will build on some initial findings of the Arab Sustainable Development Report 2019 and will focus on the SDGs under review this year; namely, SDG4, SDG8, SDG10, SDG13, SDG16 and SDG17.

Component 2 – Thematic focus: Empowering People and Ensuring Inclusiveness and Equality in the Arab Region
A key component of the Forum will focus on this year’s theme; unpacking each of the three elements of AFSD-2019 thematic focus on empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality. The thematic focus will address policy interlinkages, policy coherence, mechanisms, and lessons learned. It will also highlight case studies from the Arab region and beyond.

Component 3 – National, regional and global processes including VNRs and messages to the global summit
This component will highlight national, regional and global follow-up and review processes. In an interactive special event, VNRs will be discussed as the key national follow-up and review process with due consideration regional trends, lessons learned, and the way forward. At the regional and global levels, this component will chart the input of the Arab Region into the HLPF-2019 at ECOSOC and GA levels.