Accelerating SDG16+: Innovative Action & Partnerships to deliver on the 2030 Agenda

Tuesday, 30 January 2024 | 8:15 AM – 9:30 AM EST | Virtual
An ECOSOC Partnership Forum Side Event

Focused on SDG16+ in practice and its interlinkages across the 2030 Agenda, this event brought together over 150 participants, as well as a variety of speakers in the context of the 2024 ECOSOC Partnership Forum. This event was organized by the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, the TAP Network and International IDEA, with support from the Global SDG16+ Coalition.

Learn more about the event’s key messages, along with policy and partnerships takeaways and recommendations from speakers by downloading this note.

Overarching messages from the event:

• SDG16+ is universal. There are critical learnings to be shared, used, and implemented across diverse regional and economic contexts.
• Identification and leveraging of SDG16+ interlinkages across the 2030 Agenda are critical for policy coherence and efficiency, from a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach. Concrete SDG16+ links to climate, education, land, gender, Indigenous rights, and overall accountability and transparency—as captured in policy, plans, and strategies—were highlighted in this event.
• Multi-stakeholder partnerships, with joint decision-making, are key to implementation across national and local governments, civil society, networks, and the United Nations (UN).
• Greater emphasis should be placed on mainstreaming human rights throughout SDG16+ in policy, reporting and analysis, and advocacy.

Speakers

• Minister Kenyeh Barlay, Minister of Economic Development and Planning, Government of Sierra Leone (Keynote Message)
• Paula Fernadez-Wulff, Director General for the 2030 Agenda, Government of Spain
• Anne Romsaas, Chief SDG Adviser, Norwegian Association of Local Government (NALG)
• Elizabeth Hume, Executive Director, Alliance for Peacebuilding
• Swati Mehta, Program Director, Pathfinders for Justice, NYU Center on International Cooperation
• John Romano, Director, TAP Network
• Annika Silva-Leander, Head of North America and Permanent Observer to the UN, International IDEA (Moderator)

Discussants

• Alessandro Ercolani, UNDP
• Natia Tsikaradze, Government of Georgia
• Jyotsna Mohan-Singh, Asia Development Alliance
• Dr. Mojisola Akinsanya, Women for Peace & Gender Equality Initiative (WOPEGEE)
• Henk-Jan Brinkman, International Development Law Organization