Thailand and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) will co-organise the 4th High-Level Brainstorming Dialogue on Enhancing Complementarities between the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (HLBD) via video conference on Thursday, 4 June 2020. The Meeting will be co-chaired by H.E. Mr. Don Pramudwinai, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, and H.E. Ms. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Under-Secretary-General of the UN and Executive Secretary of ESCAP. Participants will comprise high-level representatives from ASEAN Member States, the ASEAN Secretariat, UN agencies and ASEAN’s external partners with a strong interest in promoting sustainable development in ASEAN. 

 

The 4th HLBD will provide a platform for ASEAN, UN agencies and other external partners of ASEAN to review progress and identify ways forward to enhance synergies between the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, or also known as the Complementarities Initiative. This will include the effective implementation of the Complementarities Roadmap (2020-2025), which was noted by the 10th ASEAN-UN Summit, and the work of the ASEAN Centre for Sustainable Development Studies and Dialogue (ACSDSD), which was launched at the 35th ASEAN Summit last year. Furthermore, the Dialogue will also discuss challenges and opportunities of the COVID-19 outbreak in relation to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in ASEAN, especially in the SDG Decade of Action.    

 

The HLBD is an annual meeting co-hosted by Thailand, as the ASEAN Coordinator on Sustainable Development Cooperation, and UN ESCAP since 2017. The Dialogue plays a significant role in advancing sustainable development cooperation in ASEAN and strengthening ASEAN-UN partnership in this area.