2022 Sustainable Development Transformation Forum
Building back better from the COVID-19 pandemic and fostering the
implementation of the 2030 Agenda
28 February – 3 March 2022
The Forum was organised by the United Nations Office for Sustainable Development (UNOSD), which is part of the Division for Sustainable Development Goals (DSDG) of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). UNOSD contributes to building, exchanging, and facilitating the use of knowledge in support of sustainable development across the UN system.
One of UNOSD’s flagship activities is the annual Sustainable Development Transformation Forum (SDTF). Usually, the Forum gathers relevant UN, International, national and other relevant organisations in Incheon City at the end of October every year. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 SDTF originally scheduled for October 2020 was postponed to February 2021. Due to the COVID situation, this Forum was held online.
As in most previous SDTF, the 2021-2022 years’ Forum was organised under the auspices of the forthcoming High-level Political Forum (HLPF 2022). The overarching theme of Building-Back-Better from the COVID-19 pandemic while advancing the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The SDTF had an opportunity to present and discuss in detail the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that would go under in-depth review during the HLPF in July 2022, namely SDGs 4 on quality education, five on gender equality, 14 on life below water, 15 on life on land, and 17 on partnerships for the Goals. In 2022, the SDTF successfully attempted to examine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on SDGs 4, 5, 14, 15 and 17 but also across all the SDGs given the integrated nature of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
NOWPAP was invited to present its work during the session “SDG 14 - Life Below Water – How the Oceans can help us fight against and recover from COVID-19 and deliver the SDGs”. NOWPAP Coordinator directly contributed to the session as a panellist and show-cased successful examples from NOWPAP of the delivery by the NOWPAP Member States on SDG 14 and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) and other relevant SDGs, as well as other relevant SDGs.
It has been highlighted that NOWPAP is part of the UNEP-coordinated Regional Seas Programme. Detailed information on both Regional Seas Programme and NOWPAP was presented to the meeting. Specific focus was put on the relevance of the NOWPAP MTS 2018-2023 and Programme of Work to SDG 14. Successful examples of activities were show-cased that directly contribute to several SDG targets:
- 14.1 (Reduce marine pollution) combatting eutrophication and marine litter/plastics,
- 14.2 (Protect and restore ecosystems) addressing issues of biodiversity conservation in the NOWPAP region, including the development of a Regional Action Plan on Conservation of Marine and Coastal Biodiversity (RAP BIO),
- 14.5 (Conserve coastal and marine areas) with specific focus on Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and Integrated Coastal and River Basin Management (ICARM),
- 14.8 (Increase scientific knowledge, research, and technology for ocean health) developing state-of-the-art methods (e.g., eDNA) and techniques of satellite-based remote sensing and engagement of the Google Earth Engine for the eutrophication assessment, etc.
Copies of all presentations and more details on the Forum can be found at: unosd.un.org/events/2021-22_SDTF.
