TPI is managing the secretariat for the Global Forum for National SDG Advisory Bodies with funding from GIZ and in collaboration with African Monitor.

About the Global Forum

The mission of the Global Forum is to support its members to promote national-level multi-stakeholder engagement in their government’s planning, implementation and reporting of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Members of the Global Forum share a common vision of a sustainable future for the planet, where achievement of the SDGs has been achieved through national implementation that fully reflects the needs of the whole of society and benefits all.

The secretariat and the role of TPI

The secretariat supports members and strategic partners and provides mechanisms and advice to help for members engage with each other, share learning and become critical friend to their governments.

Its role is also to grow the network and encourage national governments to recognise the value of multi-stakeholder engagement and engage with members’ activities and advice.

What form does the Global Forum take?

Set up in 2020, the Global Forum is a voluntary informal network of member organisations and associated strategic partners working towards the achievement of the SDGs.

Global Forum members are national-level organisations that bring together voices from different sections of society and act as a critical friend to their national governments. They are often independent from government but recognised either formally or informally as a key advisory group in sustainable development. They can take a wide variety of forms. In some countries they are multi stakeholder partnerships that engage civil society, the private sector, academia and other sectors. In other countries they are umbrella organisations for a group of organisations from one sector, or specialist units within a government.

The Global Forum brings together these organisations to share their experience, support each other to be more effective and to act as a joint a voice across all society for inclusive SDG implementation.

Membership of the network   

New members are accepted into the Global Forum by the steering group, which also drives the development of the network. The steering group is made up of active members of the network from each region alongside a number of key strategic partners.

 There are no formal obligations created by being a member but there is an expectation that they will engage and work closely with similar organisations in other countries.

As a voluntary informal network, the Global Forum depends on the activities and engagement of its members in order to create value.

Communities of practice

The current focus of the forum is on practitioner-based groups or ‘communities of practice’, which work on themes that members have identified as being of most interest and importance in their local achieving of SDGs. Namely:

• Leave no one behind (with a focus on youth)
• Transformative action towards structural change to achieve the 2030 Agenda
• Using VLRs to drive localization of the SDG and inform VNRs
• Data for enhanced follow-up and review processes.

The communities of practice provide opportunities for members to share their experiences with each other and to learn about how best they can support their national governments and processes.

When they can, the communities of practice will produce knowledge products based on member experience and learning that can be shared widely for practical use.

Events such as webinars and discussion for a support debate on the chosen topics for the whole membership and other interested audiences.

Development plans

To facilitate enhanced interaction between members, and to act as a showcase for members and their work, a new website is currently under construction. The website will act as a common platform for advocacy in cases where the impact of members’ work would be increased if their relationship with their national government was formalised and strengthened.

The members have also called for the establishing and support of regional networks. This will be achieved by reviving and strengthening the African regional network and then rolling out a new group in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Further information

For more information, please visit the Global Forum website or contact the secretariat.