The 2025 Regional Forum on Sustainable Development for the UNECE Region (Geneva, 2-3 April 2025) emphasized a wealth of solutions for sustainable development and the need for collaboration to scale them up.
The ECOSOC President, Ambassador Bob Rae, said that global solidarity and multilateralism are currently being tested, but that it is no time to be turning away from the obligations to each other and to a better and a stronger global order.
In times of instability and shifting global priorities, there was a strong sense to remain committed to the 2030 Agenda. As the UNECE Executive Secretary, Ms. Tatiana Molcean, underlined, the 2030 Agenda is more needed than ever to tackle many of the challenges the region is facing.
"Despite multiple global crises and shifting priorities, UNECE remains committed to the 2030 Agenda. The Regional Forum on Sustainable Development is an important opportunity and critical platform to strengthen partnerships for the SDGs and translate them into concrete actions at the regional, national and local level," Ms. Molcean stressed in her opening remarks.
About 700 participants from governments and a range of other stakeholders exchanged during the Regional Forum on policies and innovations that can drive the transformation towards sustainability. Yet, as the 2025 UNECE SDG progress report shows, progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been insufficient, with only 17 per cent of the measurable SDG targets on track to being achieved by 2030.
The Regional Forum underscored that solutions and partnerships need to be significantly scaled up to strengthen SDG progress. Powerful entry points were identified at many levels.
Local governments and cities are successfully tailoring sustainability solutions to the needs of their populations. The private sector is increasingly engaging in sustainable development as a viable business case.
In the region, there is ample opportunity to engage the private sector in financing for sustainable development and to enhance the collaboration between public and private sectors to unlock resources. Moreover, technology, digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence are providing great potential to support sustainability but may also prove disruptive.
Meaningful collaboration between governments, private sector, international organizations, civil society, young people, parliamentarians and science was seen as critical to co-create effective policy pathways. All stakeholders had a strong presence and voice at the Regional Forum.
Under the chairpersonship of Uzbekistan and Greece, the Regional Forum reviewed in-depth SDGs 3 (Health and Well-being), 5 (Gender equality), 8 (Economic growth and decent work), 14 (Life below water) and 17 (Global partnership, with focus on financing for sustainable development). Speakers and participants at peer learning round tables discussed multi-sectoral, inclusive, collaborative and evidence-based approaches to advance implementation of these SDGs.
In view of these acceleration opportunities, the UNECE region will strive to be an influencer for sustainable development and bring strong policy messages and examples to the global level, said UNECE Deputy Executive Secretary, Dmitry Mariyasin, in his closing remarks. The Regional Forum provides the official input from the region to the High-level Political Forum, taking place in New York from 14-23 July 2025.
