A small group of ICUUW members attended the annual High Level Political Forum (HLPF) at United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York in July. One of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) under review this year was number 5 - Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls.
The discussions emphasized that all sustainable development needs the talents and engagement of those who are women – half the human race. One interesting side event dealt with the issue of women's land ownership. In many countries it is still difficult for women to inherit land and to claim they are entitled to co-ownership with their husbands.
In addition, a representative from the NGO Landesa pointed out that women in agriculture need to declare themselves as farmers so they can get access to government and financial support for farming. It was announced that 2026 will be declared the Year of the Woman Farmer.
However, the recently launched Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025 revealed that only 35 percent of SDG targets are on track or making moderate progress, while nearly half are advancing too slowly and 18 percent have regressed. More than 800 million people continue to live in extreme poverty, while billions lack access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene services. Temperatures reached 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels in 2024, making it the hottest year on record. Conflicts led to nearly 50,000 deaths that same year, and forced displacement affected over 120 million people worldwide. At the same time, low- and middle-income countries faced record-high debt servicing costs of $1.4 trillion in 2023.
ICUUW's delegation in person – others attended events online – were Carol Huston, Carmen Capriles and Beth O'Connell. Beth and Carol met several mornings with the Women's Major Group. Carmen was active with the NGO Major Group and worked on two Side Events with them.
Phyllis Marsh and Julie Steinbach were also in New York during the first days of the Forum, but there were problems with registration and they never got authorization to go onto the UN Campus for the meetings. They had registered on time, but approval from the Secretariat never came through. This was very frustrating, and possibly related to the fact that the UN is facing budget problems. These problems are due in part to the Trump administration withdrawing from some UN agencies. In order to economize there is currently discussion of UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, moving from New York to Nairobi, Kenya.
HLPF also involves networking and making new connections. Julie did get in one day on a day pass and was able to meet with Carol and Beth as they talked with the new Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) representative at the UN, Mayuri Anupindi. We will make an effort to work together in the future.