The United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) is one of the only institutionalised spaces in which children can participate in global-level policymaking.
However, despite the HLPF’s mandate to directly involve children and account for their views in measuring progress and discussing challenges in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the practice of involving children is still largely missing.
Six years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, ensuring the participation of children in processes such as the HLPF is relegated to the few child-focused agencies directly campaigning and advocating for and with children. Why is there still such a wide gap between policy commitments and practice?
This paper provides two major proposals to strengthen the inclusion of children at the HLPF. It argues that now is an opportune moment to take stock of how the HLPF can work even better for children in the final Decade of Action and Delivery for Sustainable Development, tapping into their agency and participation to facilitate implementation of the SDGs.
