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Focal points are: 

  • Marion Steff (marion.steff [at] edf-feph.org)
  • Annika de Mayer (a.demaeyer [at] sgb-fss.ch ())a.demaeyer [at] sgb-fss.ch

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) was set up in 1947 by ECOSOC. It is one of five regional commissions of the United Nations. As a multilateral platform, UNECE facilitates greater economic integration and cooperation among its member countries and promotes sustainable development and economic prosperity through policy dialogue, negotiation of international legal instruments, development of regulations and norms, exchange and application of best practices as well as economic and technical expertise, technical cooperation for countries with economies in transition.

UNECE supports countries in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) thanks to its role as a platform for governments to cooperate and engage with all stakeholders on norms, standards and conventions, its unique convening power across the region, its multisectoral approach to tackle the interconnected challenges of sustainable development in an integrated manner and its transboundary focus, which helps devise solutions to shared challenges.

The European Regional Forum on Sustainable Development followed up on and reviewed their implementation of the SDGs in the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) region. The Forum focused on practical value-added and peer learning, it created a regional space to share policy solutions, best practices and challenges in SDG implementation and helped identify major regional and sub-regional trends.

As an intergovernmental mechanism, the Regional Forum on Sustainable Development is convened by UN ECE, in close cooperation with the regional UN system. It is always open to the participation of all relevant stakeholders. Representatives of the European Disability Forum (EDF) always attend the Regional Forum on Sustainable Development in Europe. The participation of EDF contributed to persons with disabilities being systematically mentioned as a group that needs to be meaningfully included for strong Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Europe and in the UN ECE region.

Next meeting of UNECE: 19-20 March 2020, International Conference Centre Geneva (CICG)