The UN High-Level Political Forum and Parliamentary Governance for Sustainable Development

Abstract: In 2015, the adoption of resolution A/RES/70/1 2030, Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN Agenda 2030) was an important statement of future intent for UN member states. The Agenda touches the entire geography of the globe covering potentially all aspects of how society, economy, the environment and the polity are organized. The working philosophy of our approach is based on the existing open governance adopted by the UN HLPF at a global level. We wish to explore a form of interoperability of public policy dialogues at national and global levels. By exploring HLPF structures in national parliaments and making them interoperable with the UN HLPF we are proposing how a body like the UN HLPF can induce ‘whole-of-society’ participation at different levels, but particularly at the binding level of the nation-state. This has the potential to create very effective global ‘whole-of-society’ partnerships, led by governments that set, implement and review sustainable development public policies around the globe. We will use Ireland as a case study to show how our proposals might be integrated to the existing policymaking processes without being overtly disruptive.

Keywords: Sustainable development, UN, Global governance, environment, partnerships