The third annual Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Moment will convene at UN headquarters in New York on Monday, 19 September 2022. The SDG Moment places an annual spotlight on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and will take place at the beginning of the UN General Assembly’s High-Level Week.

The event is expected to focus on the SDGs as a “to do list” for a safe and healthy planet and a better future for all.

The 90-minute SDG Moment is expected to include:

• an address by UN Secretary-General António Guterres;
• presentations by the Co-Chairs of the SDG Advocates (Mia Mottley, Prime Minister, Barbados, and Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister, Canada);
• a stocktaking discussion; and
• dialogues focused on two specific SDGs: Goal 10 (reduced inequalities) and Goal 13 (climate action).

Discussions will aim to establish that the world can achieve “transformative change at scale” by 2030, and to highlight the most urgent actions needed.

The SDG Moment will lead into the Transforming Education Summit also convening on 19 September. This is one of several high-level events for which the organizers of the SDG Moment seek to help build momentum.

The 2022 SDG Moment will be the first to convene in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It takes place one year before the next SDG Summit, a quadrennial event of world leaders convened by the UN General Assembly.

The annual SDG Moment resulted from the Political Declaration of the Sustainable Development Goals Summit in 2019. The Declaration requested the UN Secretary-General to organize an “annual Moment” in the context of the general debate of the General Assembly each September The Moment is designed to highlight inspiring action on the SDGs and identify where more action is needed. Recognizing the world was not on track to achieve the SDGs, the Declaration called on all actors to bring more ambition and urgency to their implementation efforts.