At the beginning of 2016, the countdown to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was set in motion. One of the main challenges lying ahead at both national and global levels is designing the follow-up and review processes to account for existing interlinkages between different SDGs goals and targets. The review of the 2030 Agenda should identify synergies and trade-offs, and highlight crosscutting issues. Additionally, conducting a thematic review in this sense requires the cooperation of many actors in ways that allow for constructive exchange and effective integration of different sources of knowledge and expertise, including between UN Agencies and non-UN actors. This will require thinking about the best way to set up the process to arrive at a thematic review of the agenda. Inclusion of civil society stakeholders in these processes can help thematic reviews reach beyond quantitative and scientific assessments, towards improved integration of context-related perspectives and localized knowledge.

The High-Level Event “Towards Thematic Reviews for an Integrated Follow-Up & Review of the 2030 Agenda”, organised by the IASS and partners, invites representatives from Member States, UN Agencies, ministries, science and academia, civil society and the private sector, to discuss potential framings and necessary set-ups for integrated, inclusive and participatory thematic reviews that support the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in its mission and the 2030 Agenda in becoming a reality. Drawing onto the mandates and expertise of hosting organisations and speakers, this event takes on a natural resources and food security framing due to their relevance as topics to all the 17 SDGs directly and indirectly, and as a start for longer discussions over the coming months in support of the HLPF’s current discussed theme for 2017 on eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world.

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