President of the United Nations General Assembly's High-level Thematic Debate on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals 21 April 2016

Civil Society and Academia Speakers Selected

On Thursday, 21 April 2016 at United Nations Headquarters in New York, the President of the UN General Assembly H.E. Mogens Lykketoft will convene a High-level Thematic Debate on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to support prompt and inclusive implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

The Thematic Debate will feature a panel discussion on "Action at all levels," which will focus on national responses to implementation of the 2030 Agenda. This panel will include three speakers from civil society and one from academia. At the request of the Office of the President of the UN General Assembly, UN DESA and UN-NGLS facilitated an open and participatory process to identify these speakers. A Stakeholder Selection Committee reviewed nearly 250 applications received, and agreed a short list of candidates to submit to the President of the UN General Assembly.

The four speakers selected to participate in the event are:
Ms. Vanessa Rosemary Anyoti - World Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) - Tanzania
Mr. Najib Saab - Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED) - Lebanon
Mr. Thauan dos Santos - Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
Ms. Siva Thanenthiran - Asian Pacific Resource And Research Centre For Women (ARROW) - Malaysia 
More information about the selection process is available here. 
Thank you to all who applied, and to the members of the Stakeholder Selection Committee for contributing their time and expertise.