The UNDR3 team from UNC participated in two events at the High-Level Political Forum in 2022.
The theme for the 2022 HLPF was “ Building back better from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development ”.
As the world is struggling to recover from COVID-19 amidst continuing crises, the HLPF reflected on how recovery policies can reverse the negative impacts of the pandemic on the SDGs and move countries on a path towards realizing the vision of the 2030 Agenda.
The HLPF also reviewed in-depth Sustainable Development Goals 4 on quality education, 5 on gender equality, 14 on life below water, 15 on life on land, and 17 on partnerships for the Goals. It took into account the different impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic across all Sustainable Development Goals and the integrated, indivisible, and interlinked nature of the Goals (UN, 2022).
The first event: a side event Disaster Risk Reduction enhancing governance to help address vulnerable groups – building back better organized with Stakeholder Forum held on the Monday the 11th of July from 7:30 to 9am EST. Cameron David Mcbroom-Fitterer from the UNC team presented.
This side event built on the HLPF theme outlined above and the fact that in 2023 both the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction will have their mid-term reviews.
The COVID 19 pandemic and climate change have shown the need to build strong, resilient, and inclusive governance structures that support vulnerable populations and leave no one behind. Our goals were to look at adaptive governance capabilities at the national, sub-national, and local levels to enable equitable disaster risk reduction and resilience in development planning and development programmes. We also wanted to compare a developed country and a developing country approach, and what lessons might be gained on governance and approaches to vulnerable groups.
We wanted to look at SDG 5 and other vulnerable groups, and the critical role that sustainable development education can play in building stronger capacity within the research field in developing countries.
Ultimately, this event aimed to contribute to an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary agenda where governments' plans enable equitable disaster risk reduction and resilience in development planning and development programmes.

The second event: Elisabeth Butler was selected by the UNDRR Stakeholder Engagement Mechanism (SEM) to speak on Friday, the 15th of July at 1 pm EST at the Voluntary National Review Lab 18: Applying the Sendai Framework to fast-track the 2030 Agenda through a risk-informed approach Organized by UNDRR. She presented the Stakeholder Toolkit that UNC had developed around the UNC Snow Angel Method for stake holder engagement.