BANGKOK, Thailand, (ESCAP News) – The Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD) is an annual and inclusive intergovernmental forum and a regional platform for supporting countries, in particular those with special needs, in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development while serving as a regional preparatory meeting to the high-level political forum.
The Forum provides a regional perspective on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda by identifying regional trends and consolidating and sharing best practices and lessons learned. The Forum takes into consideration the contributions of United Nations system bodies (at the regional level), other regional and sub-regional organizations, and relevant stakeholders. The APFSD also supports follow-up and review of progress on the 2030 Agenda at the regional level.
The theme of the 8th APFSD is “Sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia and the Pacific”. It will be organized from March 23-26, 2021 in a hybrid mode. Some sessions will be organized as hybrid sessions, enabling physical presence in the UNCC, while other sessions (i.e. parallel roundtables on in-depth reviews of SDGs) will be organized entirely as online events
The 8th APFSD will play a unique role as a catalyzer of solutions and peer learning on how to accelerate transformations for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda while recovering from COVID-19, by providing a platform to:
- Discuss how transformations can take place in the aftermath of COVID-19, supporting a sustainable and resilient recovery while accelerating implementation of the SDGs.
- Conduct in-depths review of SDGs 1, 2, 3, 8, 10, 12, 13, 16 and 17, without prejudice to the integrated, indivisible and interlinked nature of the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Support the presentation of Voluntary National Reviews for the 2021 HLPF.
- Discuss opportunities to strengthen linkages between national, regional and global follow-up and review.
