About
The High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development is the UN's central platform for following up on and reviewing the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. Each year it examines a subset of goals in depth and hears countries report on their own progress.
In 2026 the in-depth reviews cover SDG 6 (water and sanitation), SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy), SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), SDG 11 (sustainable cities), and SDG 17 (partnerships).
The opening in brief
The Forum opened on 7 July. President of ECOSOC Lok Bahadur Thapa (Nepal) declared it open and framed the task as coherence and delivery in the final stretch to 2030. Presenting the Secretary-General’s 2026 progress report, Li Junhua put the headline plainly: just 36% of the 139 assessable SDG targets are on track or making moderate progress, and official development assistance fell a record 23% last year. The first in-depth review took SDG 6 (water and sanitation), where the debate turned on finance: the World Bank’s “Water Forward” pledge, a UN University warning of “global water bankruptcy,” and UN-Water’s new SDG 6 synthesis report. See the opening and SDG 6 review for the full summary.
What we're watching
- Five goals in the spotlight. In-depth reviews of SDGs 6, 7, 9, 11 and 17: water, energy, industry and innovation, cities, and partnerships.
- 36 countries on the record. The Voluntary National Reviews are where governments report their own progress; the gap between narrative and data is always worth reading.
- Means of implementation. With SDG 17 under review against a persistent SDG financing gap, expect partnerships and finance to dominate the closing days.
What to expect
- Official plenaries and thematic “SDGs in focus” review sessions.
- 36 Voluntary National Reviews: countries presenting their own SDG progress.
- VNR Labs and 250+ side events (on-site, off-site and virtual).
- A three-day ministerial segment (13–15 July) and a negotiated Ministerial Declaration.
How to follow it
All official HLPF meetings (plenaries, thematic reviews and VNR presentations) are livestreamed and archived on UN Web TV. Side events vary; many virtual ones carry their own registration links.
Main meetings
Across the Forum (7–16 July), SDGCounting posts short summaries of the official sessions and in-depth reviews that matter: what was said, who said it, and why it counts for SDG progress. Ordered as they happened, first meeting first.
The opening & the SDG 6 review
ECOSOC opens the Forum, the SG’s progress report lands, and the water review turns on finance and implementation.
Read summary → 7 July · 2nd meetingThe SDG 7 review: affordable and clean energy
Technology is ready and the transition “unstoppable,” but the energy review turns on finance, grids and inclusion, with Africa furthest behind.
Read summary → 8 July · 3rd meetingThe special-situations review: Africa, LDCs, LLDCs and MICs
The countries furthest from 2030: the frameworks exist, the financing doesn’t, and the fight is over going beyond GDP to what actually gets counted.
Read summary → 8 July · 4th meetingThe SDG 9 review: industry, innovation and infrastructure
SDG 9 as the engine of the whole Agenda: the fight is the investment ecosystem, Africa’s value chains, and output rising while jobs and access fall behind.
Read summary → 9 July · 5th meetingThe small island developing states review
The first ABAS baseline lands and most of the data is missing. The islands built the tools to measure vulnerability; the finance still keys off GDP.
Read summary → 9 July · 6th meetingThe SDG 11 review: sustainable cities and communities
Cities were drafted into the Agenda last and turned out to sit under all of it. The people who move a city are missing from its data.
Read summary → 10 July · 7th meetingThe SDG 17 review: partnerships and stakeholder engagement
The last of the five reviews. The UN concedes civic space is shrinking; civil society argues participation means being able to check, not just being asked.
Read summary → 10 July · 8th meetingThe Voluntary National Reviews: seven countries present
Estonia, Liberia, the Marshall Islands and four more report their own SDG progress. The story is real gains as the aid model collapses, and civil society asking who is still uncounted.
Read summary →More session summaries will appear here as the Forum continues (7–16 July).
Side events & special sessions
The official reviews are only part of the Forum. Alongside them, SDGCounting covers the side events, special events and press briefings that sharpen the SDG story, ordered as they happened.
AI for social inclusion
UN DESA and the Philippines on why AI includes no one by default, and how who gets counted in the data decides who AI serves.
Read summary → 9 July · HLPF special eventScience Day 2026
The International Science Council and UN DESA on an action gap rather than an evidence gap, and the impact data nobody collects.
Read summary → 9 July · Press briefingUN-Habitat on renewing commitments to sustainable cities
The SDG 11 synthesis report lands: progress that is neither fast enough nor equitable enough, and a housing crisis that is really a crisis of inequality.
Read summary → 9 July · HLPF side eventDigitalization, statistics and AI
Singapore, Rwanda and Jamaica on making official data AI-ready, and why the SDG implementation gap is fundamentally a data gap.
Read summary → 9 July · HLPF side eventLaunching the Global WASH Sector Resilience Index
UNICEF’s new beta index asks whether water systems keep working under shock, not just how many people have access.
Read summary → 9 July · HLPF side eventFinancing industrial and blue economy value chains
Tanzania, UNCDF and UNIDO on a $300 billion gap of architecture rather than ambition, and why informal firms are invisible, not unproductive.
Read summary → 9 July · HLPF special eventBridging systems, building trust
A UN DESA policy dialogue on the interlinkages: why spending a whole energy budget on energy captures only a fraction of its impact.
Read summary → 9 July · HLPF special eventWe the Peoples: shaping the future of the UN
Guterres and civil society on UN80 reform, and the argument that nobody measures the wars and pandemics that did not happen.
Read summary → 10 July · HLPF side eventHumanity at the center: ethical AI and the water-energy-food nexus
UN University’s keynote: AI is a physical product with a water and carbon footprint the industry mostly does not measure.
Read summary → 10 July · HLPF side eventAct, allocate, accelerate: SDG delivery through eye health
Antigua and Barbuda on eye health as a cross-cutting SDG multiplier, where the evidence is settled and the gap is financing and delivery.
Read summary → 10 July · HLPF side eventAdvancing inclusive prosperity through philanthropy
ESCAP and the Institute of Philanthropy on philanthropy as a complement to aid, not a substitute: its value is risk and trust, not the cheque.
Read summary →More side-event summaries will appear here as the Forum continues (7–16 July).
Important documents
The reference documents that frame this year’s Forum: the global stocktake it is measured against, the flagship reports behind the goals under in-depth review, and the country reports at its center.
The SDG Report 2026
The UN’s annual stocktake: 36% of the 139 assessable targets on track or making moderate progress. Our full read.
Read coverage → 36 countries · 2026Voluntary National Reviews
What the 36 countries reporting their own SDG progress said this year: the collective main messages and the data-capacity story. Our brief.
Read the brief → SDG 6 · UN-WaterSDG 6 Synthesis Report 2026
The water-and-sanitation review’s evidence base: ten years in, 74% have safely managed drinking water but 2.2 billion still go without. Our brief.
Read the brief → SDG 7 · IEA/IRENA/UN/WB/WHOTracking SDG 7: Energy Progress Report 2026
The energy review’s scorecard: renewables pass 30% of global electricity, yet 655 million still lack power. Our brief.
Read the brief → SDG 9 · UNIDOIndustrial Development Report 2026
The SDG 9 flagship: the future of industrialization, and how digital and green technologies are reshaping who can industrialize. Our brief.
Read the brief → SDG 11 · UN-HabitatWorld Cities Report 2026
The SDG 11 flagship: a global housing crisis, with up to 3.4 billion people lacking adequate housing. Our brief.
Read the brief → SDG 17 · financingFinancing for Sustainable Development Report 2026
The means-of-implementation evidence base: the SDG financing gap is now over $4 trillion a year, with aid, investment and fiscal space shrinking at once. Our brief.
Read the brief →