From Past Achievements to Future Successes

Happy Saturday, folks! Welcome to the August edition of our In Case You Missed It monthly review. 

In the Northern hemisphere, things tend to slow down before the start of the school year. Before we pick up the pace in September, at the SDG Knowledge Hub we’re reflecting on some of the recent achievements—and lay the groundwork for successes to come. So, kick off your shoes, get comfy, and read on!

Reflecting on Past Achievements

While some of us may have taken well-deserved time off, others took advantage of the late summer hiatus to analyze recent developments in global environmental governance and sustainable development. 

At the Hub, we are still unpacking the landmark ruling on climate change from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), with guest authors offering reflections on how the advisory opinion might impact health-based climate litigation and on the certainty it provides with regard to the continuity of small island States’ maritime boundaries. The ICJ has confirmed that “safeguarding human health is a legal imperative, and not a policy afterthought.” It is also now clear that the vast ocean resources within island States’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs) “are permanently secured, regardless of sea level rise.”

As countries and stakeholders work toward a more fair and just global financial architecture, a global network shared civil society’s perspectives on the outcomes of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) and provided updates on side events that convened in the margins of the Conference. While the FfD4 outcome document—the Compromiso de Sevilla—may not live up to civil society’s expectations, it does allow for opportunities to engage on development cooperation, debt reform, and tax justice, among other issues.

Laying the Groundwork for Future Milestones

Many will likely remember August for the failure to conclude negotiations toward a new plastic treaty. Numerous intractable issues plagued the negotiations. Concerns were raised over process and transparency. While time may not have been ripe for consensus and much remains uncertain—including the dates of a future resumed meeting and the document that would serve as the basis for further talks—some will no doubt use the coming months to fix what went wrong and “get it right next time.”

Other multilateral developments during August reassured us that cooperative efforts can still deliver results. The Third UN Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) adopted a unified strategy in areas LLDCs prioritize, including structural economic transformation, trade, climate change adaptation, and finance and partnerships. Countries also agreed to form a negotiating bloc to better represent LLDCs’ interests in climate negotiations. 

The Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands took steps to reverse wetland loss and degradation through increased synergies with other multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), institutional strengthening, enhanced implementation tools, partnerships and networks, and adequate financial support. 

The Second Food Systems Summit Stocktake (UNFSS+4) revealed a growing, coordinated, and diverse community of governments, UN agencies, civil society, farmers, and others working together to align food systems pathways with national development goals and the SDGs. UNFSS+4 launched the UN Secretary-General’s call to action, urging governments, businesses, civil society, and international partners to accelerate efforts to transform food systems to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Looking at the coming year, the new President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) outlined his priorities for the Council’s 2026 session. Succeeding Canada’s Bob Rae, Lok Bahadur Thapa, Permanent Representative of Nepal to the UN, will work under the motto, ‘Delivering Better.’

The UN Secretary-General’s UN80 initiative launched a report examining how the UN’s mandates are created, delivered, and reviewed and offering proposals on how to strengthen each of these functions. Member States are now considering these proposals. The UN80 initiative aims to support a more aligned, efficient, and results-oriented UN system, conducting work under three workstreams: efficiencies and improvements; mandate implementation review; and structural changes and programmatic realignments.

A United Arab Emirates (UAE) representative to the UN announced that the next step for the UN Water Conference in 2026 is the selection of co-chairs for the interactive dialogues. The high-level UN 2026 Water Conference will take place in the UAE in December 2026, with Senegal and the UAE as co-hosts.

An interactive dialogue prepared for the review of the Pact for the Future in 2028. The three imperatives that emerged from the discussions are to: maintain a focus on impact in terms of real improvements in people’s lives; strengthen coherence across the Pact, its annexes, and all related intergovernmental processes; and ensure inclusive and participatory follow-up, supported by meaningful engagement from all stakeholders.

Data to Inform Progress

Recently published resources to support multilateral efforts include: 

• A guide to a global agreement to end plastic pollution, written to inform participants at the plastic talks in Geneva, reviews the history of the negotiations, proposals under discussion, and stakeholders involved in the talks.
• The annual State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report (SOFI) provides data to support food systems transformation.
• The 2025 Africa Sustainable Development Report reviews the status of Africa’s implementation of the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063 and offers policy recommendations to facilitate their attainment.

Expert perspectives we featured over the course of the month include suggestions to link science, policy, and society to accelerate the 2030 Agenda, a recommendation to create a new narrative to generate broader ownership of the SDGs, and an argument in favor of culture’s inclusion in the development space to ensure context-relevant, people-centered, rights-based, and inclusive sustainable development models. 

Next month, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) will commence its 80th session under the theme, ‘Better Together: 80 Years and More for Peace, Development and Human Rights.’ 

We hope this snapshot of August’s SDG news provides useful examples of how working together in a cooperative spirit can bring results—and serves as a reminder of what is at stake if the spirit of togetherness is broken.