Report of the SDG 16 Conference Now Available

Outcome: key messages and recommendations

The 2021 global SDG 16 Conference – Transforming Governance for a more Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Future: SDG 16 as the roadmap to respond to COVID-19 and build back better – came to a successful conclusion on Friday, 30 April 2021, following six high-level plenary sessions and nine parallel thematic sessions, all held in a virtual format.

Co-organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), and the Government of Italy, the SDG 16 Conference provided a timely global platform to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the transformative contribution SDG 16 can make in promoting inclusive and sustainable recovery and in accelerating progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

One hundred and one high-level speakers, including ministers, officials, judges, human rights scholars and advocates, youth leaders, representatives of supreme audit institutions, as well as experts on gender, public institutions, anticorruption, and governance, among others, engaged in broad-ranging discussions on how to address our shared fragility, renew the social contract to build trust between people and the state, and turn challenges into opportunities to rebuild and transform governance with SDG 16 at its center. Several executive heads of UN entities led discussions, and more were represented through their deputies at Assistant Secretary-General level.

The Conference was attended by over 500 participants from government, civil society, the UN system, stakeholder groups, academia, and intergovernmental organizations.

Direct access to the report