At HLPF 2026, UN Women calls for renewed commitment, stronger partnerships, and accelerated action to ensure that women and girls benefit equally from progress across all SDGs.
At the 2026 High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), UN Women is championing gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls as indispensable drivers of progress across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the world entering the final stretch toward 2030 – the deadline to achieve the SDGs.
Under this year’s theme of advancing “Transformative, equitable, innovative, and coordinated actions for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals for a sustainable future for all”, the Forum offers a critical opportunity to assess progress, address persistent challenges, and accelerate solutions that deliver tangible and lasting change for all – with a particular focus on women and girls, who continue to face systemic barriers and are too often left behind.
This year’s in-depth review of SDGs 6, 7, 9, 11 and 17 shines a spotlight on the structural drivers of gender inequality.
Access to safe water and sanitation, affordable and sustainable energy, inclusive infrastructure and innovation, and resilient and sustainable cities are not gender-neutral matters – they are fundamentally issues of equality, justice, access to resources, services, opportunities and decision-making. Equally critical are the partnerships, financing commitments, and data systems that underpin implementation and accountability.
Progress across these goals will remain fragile, uneven, and ultimately unattainable, unless governments and stakeholders confront persistent gender inequalities, invest in gender-responsive solutions, and ensure that policies, resources and decision-making processes reflect the realities, rights and leadership of all women and girls.
At HLPF and beyond, UN Women is advocating for the full, gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Through its engagement with Member States, UN entities and partners, UN Women is calling for stronger accountability for gender equality commitments, increased investment in gender-responsive policies and programmes, and the systematic use of gender statistics and indicators to measure progress, expose persistent inequalities and guide evidence-based action. This includes promoting the meaningful integration of gender perspectives throughout Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) and national SDG reporting processes, ensuring that commitments are matched by implementation and results.
By advancing inclusive and transformative solutions, UN Women advocates for investments in public services, sustainable infrastructure and social protection policies that are essential for equitable and resilient care systems; safe and inclusive public spaces free from violence; women’s leadership in energy, water, innovation and urban governance; and stronger partnerships that mobilize financing, data and political will to better respond to the needs and rights of all women and girls, particularly those often left behind.
UN Women events at HLPF 2026
UN Women corporate side event – Local action, global impact: Achieving SDGs through Safe Cities for Women and Girls
Thursday, 16 July, 1.15 – 2.30 p.m. EDT
Location: Conference Room 2 (CR2), UN Headquarters, New York
Speakers/Co-hosts: UN Women Deputy Executive Director, Spain, EU, Canada, Mayor of San Miguelito, Panama, and other speakers from Tanzania, India, Egypt, and Bolivia
2026 SDGs in practice – A decade of learning: What capacities matter most for accelerating SDG implementation?
Tuesday, 7 July, 8 – 9.30 a.m. EDT
Location: Virtual
Speakers/Co-hosts: UN Women, UNITAR, UN DESA
VNR lab – Advancing gender indicators for SDG implementation and accountability
Tuesday, 7 July, 1:15 – 2.30 p.m. EDT
Location: Dag Hammarskjöld Library, UN HQ, New York, Room L-133
Speakers/Co-hosts: UN Women Deputy Executive Director, UNEP, ENERGIA, UN DESA, Bangladesh (TBC), Cabo Verde (TBC)
Why it matters
With less than five years remaining to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, HLPF 2026 represents a pivotal moment to accelerate action for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. Despite important gains in some areas, progress towards gender equality remains uneven, fragile, and too slow.
The Forum provides a key opportunity for governments, the United Nations, civil society and other stakeholders to assess progress, identify gaps, and accelerate action. Through the VNRs and high-level policy discussions, countries can demonstrate how they are integrating gender equality into sustainable development programmes, policies, and investments to ensure women and girls benefit from progress across all SDGs, beyond SDG 5 alone.
At a time of escalating conflicts, growing humanitarian needs, widening inequalities and mounting pressures on the multilateral system, the international community must move beyond commitments and deliver tangible results. HLPF 2026 offers a critical platform to galvanize momentum for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and advance policies, investments and partnerships needed to address today’s interconnected challenges. More than ever, women and girls must be at the centre of these efforts – not only because they are disproportionately affected by poverty, conflict, displacement and climate change, but most importantly, as leaders and agents of change whose rights, voices and contributions are essential to building peaceful, inclusive and sustainable societies.
The discussions, commitments and solutions emerging from HLPF 2026 will help shape the road to the 71st session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW71) in 2027, where the international community will take stock of progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development from a gender perspective. HLPF 2026 represents a decisive opportunity to turn ambition into action, strengthen multilateral cooperation, and accelerate the transformative change needed to deliver on the promise of sustainable development with women and girls at the centre.
The time to act is now, for all women and girls.
