The SDGs and the UN General Assembly 2025

The 2025 SDG Moment was held on Monday 22 September 2025, at the start of the high-level week of the 80th UN General Assembly, in New York. It was organised as a ‘townhall’ style event, held at the Economic and Social Council Chamber (ECOSOC) in UN Headquarters.

Leaders from governments and stakeholder groups discussed ways to accelerate progress during the final five years of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Speakers highlighted events held earlier in 2025 as examples of possibilities and opportunities to move forward. These included the Ocean Conference, the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) and the UN Food Systems Summit Stocktake. Speakers also stressed the important role of peace and inclusivity for moving towards achieving the 2030 SDGs.  

UN Secretary-General António Guterres noted that while there was much yet to be done to achieve the SDGs, there were signs of hope: record numbers of girls were in schools, child mortality had declined, and over 90% of global population had access to electricity. He said the interconnectedness of the SDGs offered one solution to how to speed up progress, given that progress on each SDG made it easier to achieve other SDGs. He noted that global military spending was thirteen times official development assistance in 2024 (equivalent to the entire GDP of Africa), concluding that the main challenge was not a question of resources, but of choices.

UNGA President Annalena Baerbock noted the importance of standing up to and speaking out to those who are trying to get rid of the 17 goals. She saw the implementation gap as one of political will and resources rather than an absence of solutions. She highlighted the importance of meeting commitments on loss and damage, fair energy transitions, restoration of ecosystems, and development that makes space for voices that too often were ignored.

At the World Leaders Panel discussion, moderated by Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the UN, Hilda Heine, President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Micheál Martin, Taoiseach of Ireland, spoke of their own countries’ work to fulfil the SDGs. Heine said oceans were a defining feature of small island developing states' economies, calling for implementation of the Agreement on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) and the need to build a new treaty to end global plastic pollution. She explained how the Marshall Islands made use of renewable energy sources: an important example of taking ownership of solutions to counter climate change. Martin said Ireland was applying lessons of the Irish peace process to support conflict resolution in many parts of the world. He stressed the importance of reasserting multilateralism in the face of recent and ongoing attempts by some to undermine the multilateral order and the UN,

At the Multistakeholder Panel Discussion, speakers representing youth, business, women and UN organisations discussed ways in which joined up multilateralism, where all stakeholders contribute to the SDGs, could support further work over the coming five years. John Denton, Secretary General, International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), said the ICC was founded on the idea that the private sector would act where governments could not. He added that we all have agency - inertia was a danger; and urged participants not to wait for politicians to act on access to water, education, and other goals. Gilbert Houngbo, Director-General, International Labor Organization (ILO) was perhaps surprisingly upbeat: while current geopolitics were “tricky,” he stressed the importance of reaffirming the “social” as the centrepiece of development strategies; progress was being made globally. Stakeholders should see the glass as half full, rather than half empty. Haoliang Xu, Acting Administrator, UN Development Programme (UNDP), said the SDGs were the best international framework we have for development and called on all stakeholders to redouble their efforts to help achieve the Goals. Summing up the discussion, Deputy Secretary-General Mohammed said there was no shortage of ideas: we knew already what worked and what didn’t. She concluded, therefore that we needed to ensure there was a sense of urgency to what we do, and to focus on implementation at scale.

Keeping Faith in Dialogue: ‘Reimagining Interreligious Cooperation for a New Agenda for Peace’

The Multi-Faith Advisory Council (MFAC) to the UN Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Religion and Sustainable Development and the International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID), in cooperation with the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC); Religions for Peace; the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); and the Office of the United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide (OSAPG) hosted a high-level event in the margins of UNGA 80: ‘Keeping Faith in Dialogue: Reimagining Interreligious Cooperation for a New Agenda for Peace’. This focused on the role of inter-religious and multi-stakeholder alliances in advancing global stability and resilience.

The event brought together diverse stakeholders, faith leaders, government representatives, international organizations, civil society, and youth representatives. Participants noted especially how inclusive inter-religious engagement was critical to achieving sustainable long-term peace; that cross-sector and inter-religious collaboration could address the root causes of conflict and promote social cohesion; the need to advance the meaningful participation of women and youth in peacebuilding; and the role youth and grassroots bodies could have in peacemaking.

The SDGs: Next Steps post-UNGA 80, 2025

We live in turbulent geopolitical times. The good news is that no-one (nation or organisation) appeared to try to put a spanner in the works of these discussions on the SDGs at UNGA 80, nor to stymie further work. The bad news is that nations and organisations minded to obstruct probably ignored the events, secure in the knowledge that nothing said or done there would commit anyone formally to any further action. It is also worth noting that main speakers and participants came from predictable countries and bodies, i.e. UN and other multilateral-minded bodies; liberal Western and other countries, and small nations most affected by climate change. 

A greater test of the international will to advance the SDGs will come very soon, at this month’s Doha World Summit for Social Development. That meeting is intended to reach agreement on a formal Political Declaration of internationally agreed measures each member state and relevant others will implement to increase the chances of achieving the SDGs by the target date of 2030. There is a fair chance that some nations may try to slow, water down or even block agreement on the Political Declaration. Some may boycott the Summit or refuse to sign the Declaration. Even agreement on a Declaration may be followed by patchy, incomplete national level implementation of measures within it.

Second World Summit for Social Development: Doha, Qatar 04-06 November 2025

The Summit will aim to reaffirm global solidarity and accelerate action on social development by assessing progress, addressing gaps, and strengthening implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals. The Summit will adopt an actions-oriented Political Declaration, outlining commitments by all signatories to social development and to providing momentum for their implementation at national and international levels.

This Declaration then will serve as a framework to guide national governments, UN agencies, and other stakeholders in aligning policies and programmes with the commitments within the Declaration. Countries will be encouraged to integrate these commitments into development strategies, legal frameworks and public policies.