by: Division for Sustainable Development (UNDESA)

In 2012, at the Rio+20 Conference, UN Member States decided to establish a universal, intergovernmental high-level political forum (HLPF) that 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”.
In response to this call, the Division for Sustainable Development of the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs produced the Prototype Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR). The report is based on inputs from a wide range of UN entities, scientists, experts and government officials. It aims to present how future editions of the Global Sustainable Development Report could address a range of relevant topics, including reviewing recent assessments, measuring progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), reviewing long-term sustainable development scenarios and taking stock of emerging issues. The Prototype GSDR was launched during the second session of the HLPF on 1 July 2014.

The Prototype Report focused on global sustainable development, and therefore did not provide an in-depth analysis of sustainable development at the regional, national and local levels. However, it highlighted suggestions that could be taken into account in future editions of the report such as: i) considering systematic channels of input from countries in special situations and from smaller economies and sub-regions that are not so well represented in the global level debate; and ii) analysing country groups including countries in special situations or with high vulnerabilities (e.g. SIDS, Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and countries in sub-Saharan Africa), and/or country groups categorized by development stage (e.g. developing countries, developed countries, economies in transition) or by income (e.g. high-income, middle-income and low-income countries).

This brief provides a short overview of the Prototype GSDR and, based on its content, outlines some ways in which future editions could inform SIDS on a range of issues linked with their sustainable development challenges.

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