President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Monday (Sept. 18) participated in the United Nations 2023 SDG Summit, a high-level political forum on sustainable development, under the auspices of UN General Assembly (UNGA).

The Sri Lankan leader is in the United States to attend the 78th session of the UNGA, themed “Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity: Accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals towards peace, prosperity, progress and sustainability for all”, which is taking place from September 18 to 21.

The General Assembly’s president is convening heads of state and government for the SDG Summit on September 18 and 19 at UN headquarters in New York during the UNGA high-level week.

With the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at midpoint, world leaders are expected to carry out a comprehensive review of the state of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), respond to the impact of multiple and interlocking crises facing the world, and provide high-level political guidance on transformative and accelerated actions towards the target year of 2030.

UN says for the first time in decades, development progress is reversing under the combined impacts of climate disasters, conflict, economic downturn and lingering COVID-19 effects. Thus, the SDG Summit serves as a rallying cry to recharge momentum, for world leaders to come together, to reflect on where we stand and resolve to do more.

The SDG Summit is the centerpiece of the high-level week of the General Assembly. It will respond to the impact of multiple and interlocking crises facing the world and is expected to reignite a sense of hope, optimism, and enthusiasm for the 2030 Agenda.

Through the Summit, countries, both individually and collectively, have an opportunity to place the world on a sustainable development path.

UN says the international community can seize this opportunity to make significant transformations for integrated SDG implementation and how societies produce, consume and share benefits and risks, while leaving no one behind.

The Summit is envisaged to be forward-looking and action-oriented, with the aim of accelerating international action to improve people’s lives and reinvigorating the sense of hope, optimism and enthusiasm that characterized the adoption of the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda. It is expected to adopt a concise, action-oriented political declaration as its outcome document.