2015
Now available - Global Sustainable Development Report 2015. Advance Unedited Version.
News - 2 June
News
Global Sustainable Development Report 2015 to be launched at High-level Political Forum
2014 - Prototype edition
The prototype report illustrated a range of potential content, alternative approaches, and various ways of participation, to support Member States’ deliberation on future editions.
Global Sustainable Development Report
The Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR) is a United Nations publication aiming to strengthen the science-policy interface at the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development, which replaced the Commission on Sustainable Development after Rio+20 as the main United Nations platform providing political leadership and guidance on sustainable development issues at the international level.

The cycle of the report will coincide with the cycle of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

  • Every four years, an in-depth report will be launched to feed into the HLPF held under the auspices of the General Assembly
  • For each year when the HLPF is held under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council, a shorter and focused report will be launched addressing sustainable development issues and nexus on a rotational basis.

As outlined in the Rio+20 outcome document, the HLPF would, as one of its functions, "strengthen the science-policy interface through review of documentation bringing together dispersed information and assessments, including in the form of a global sustainable development report, building on existing assessments" (§85k). The GSDR will therefore adopt an assessment-of-assessments approach, documenting and describing the landscape of information on specific issues that are policy-relevant in field of sustainable development. The report does not compete with new assessments and other substantive reports and assessments being prepared by the UN system and outside.

The report will be global in coverage while taking into account the perspectives of the five UN regions. Extensive inputs will be sought from the UN system, including the Regional Commissions, scientists, government officials and stakeholders at all levels, including representatives of academies of sciences, of key international assessments, and relevant UN expert groups.

Going forward, the GSDR process will proceed according to the preferences expressed by Member States at the HLPF.
Copyright United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs