Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: United Nations (video statements)

The HLPF will be held from Monday, 14 July, to Wednesday, 23 July 2025, under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council.

Opening
Unlocking means of implementation: Mobilizing financing and STI for the SDGs (Townhall meeting)

-How can countries and stakeholders advance a coherent framework for financing the SDGs? 
-What are the key outcomes from the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) which can be addressed in the short-term?
-How can promising science and technology solutions for the SDGs be scaled up? 
-What innovative examples were highlighted at the 10th Multi-Stakeholder Forum on STI for the SDGs?

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The High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) will be held from Monday, 14 July, to Wednesday, 23 July 2025, under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council. This includes the three-day ministerial segment of the forum from Monday, 21 July, to Wednesday, 23 July 2025, as part of the High-level Segment of ECOSOC.

The theme of the HLPF will be "Advancing sustainable, inclusive, science- and evidence-based solutions for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals for leaving no one behind"

Five Sustainable Development Goals would be the focus of HLPF 2025 

SDG 3 – Good Health and Well-Being
SDG 5 – Gender Equality
SDG 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 14 – Life Below Water
SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals

The 2025 HLPF is expected to bring together ministerial and high-level representatives of governments, as well as a wide range of expertise and stakeholders, including heads of UN entities, academics and other experts, and representatives of major groups and other stakeholders. 

37 countries will present a Voluntary National Reviews (VNR) at the 2025 HLPF: Angola, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Finland, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Malaysia, Malta, Micronesia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Qatar, Saint Lucia, Seychelles, South Africa, Sudan, Suriname, Thailand.  

Watch in 6 UN official languages: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1f/k1fv876o81

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FEcMRkKdGw

Source: United Nations (video statements)

World Food Programme (WFP) deputy chief Carl Skau said, “one in three people in Gaza goes for days without eating.” He once again called for a ceasefire and the access for humanitarian aid, the Programme has "enough food on the borders to be delivered to the entire population for some two months," he said.

The Deputy Executive Director briefed reporters today (11 Jul) in New York on his recent visit to Gaza.

“Starvation is spreading,” Skau said, referring to the recent IPC report a few weeks ago pointing to the entire population being acutely food insecure and 500,000 people in starvation, he added, “it’s much worse now. Malnutrition is surging.”

The senior WFP official also highlighted the displacement in the Strip. He said, “I’ve met families who have moved maybe two or three times. Now it’s a situation where I meet families who have moved two or three times in the past ten days. They have moved 20 or 30 times, and obviously every time they are able to bring less and the margins to survive become slimmer

Skau also said that the Programme’s ability to response and assist as humanitarians “have never been more constrained.”

“The first issue is obviously the amount that we are able to bring in. It’s just a fraction of what’s needed,” he explained, adding that the price of a kilo of wheat flour was over $25 during his visit last week.

Skau described the operating environment for his team as “impossible.”

He said, “Some 85 percent now of the territory, there are active military operations. Our teams get stuck in waiting for clearances and at checkpoints, often spending between 15 to 20 hours straight in the armored vehicles trying to escort our convoys.”

“There’s not enough fuel. There are not enough spare parts to our vehicles. Most of the windows in our armored vehicles have been damaged, and we don’t have basic communication. Radio, antennas from our cars have been ripped off. And so, if you are more than 20 metres away from each other, we don’t have proper communication. And that, it is really an issue when you are in this kind of environment, he added.

The Deputy Executive Director also informed the reporters that WFP has been “actively engaging with Israeli authorities over the past few weeks.”

He noted that there were some agreements in terms of improving the conditions, but the implementation of the agreements is not yet enough.

Skau reiterated that WFP has enough food on the borders to deliver to the entire population for some two months, “but obviously we need that ceasefire and we need conditions within that ceasefire.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFmi37nXRCk

Source: United Nations (video statements)

“Since the spring of this year, first Pakistan, then Iran and now possibly others, such as Tajikistan, are fomenting the mass return of Afghan refugees,” a UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said.

Arafat Jamal, UNHCR Representative in Afghanistan, addressed the press virtually from Kabul today (11 Jul), in New York on the country’s humanitarian situation, notably on the increase of Afghan returns in adverse circumstances

He reported, “Since the spring of this year, first Pakistan, then Iran and now possibly others, such as Tajikistan, are fomenting the mass return of Afghan refugees. Some people are moving in a voluntary fashion, but others are not.”

He said, “Of concern to us is the scale, the intensity and the manner in which returns are occurring. In terms of the scale, over 1.6 million Afghans have returned from both Pakistan and Iran this year alone, including 1.3 million from Iran.”

He also said, “At the Iran Afghanistan border, where I just was a few days ago, and to which I’m heading again tomorrow, we are seeing peaks of over 40,000 people a day. And on the fourth of July, we actually saw 50,000 people coming across that border. Many of these returnees are arriving having been abruptly uprooted and having undergone arduous, exhausting and degrading journeys.”

He highlighted, “And while they are from Afghanistan, they often appear to be not of Afghanistan. Often born abroad, with better education and different cultural norms. Their outlook is different from and often at all with present day in Afghanistan. We are particularly concerned about the fate of women and girls in a country in which their most basic human rights are at risk and not respected.”

He continued, “What we are seeing with these returns is precarity layered upon poverty, on drought, human rights abuses and an instable region. In other words, we are having a deeply impoverished people coming to a country that is itself, while welcoming wholly unprepared to receive them.”

He stressed, “Many will be left with a desperate choice: Do they flee, or do they fight? Do they do they come home find nothing to do and simply bounce back to Iran, to Turkey and on to Europe? Or if they are, particularly if they are working age men, are they going to be victims of those groups that are prowling the countryside looking for recruits for their various causes.”

He concluded, “We are calling for restraint, for resources, for dialog and for international cooperation to stem an evolving chaotic situation and to foster a more stable outcome for all of us.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-mb6ZnlqMU