Five years before the intended completion of the 2030 Agenda, our globalized world is in turmoil.
Unprecedented challenges of polycrisis management – of the COVID-19 pandemic, spikes in inflation,
mounting budgetary pressures and the accumulation of public debt – are shrinking the policy and fiscal space
for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The devastating toll of wars, the erosion of respect for
international law and territorial integrity of countries, including cases of genocide, the emergence of outright
economic nationalism crowding out a rules-based global order, and risks of democratic backsliding are about
to generate uncertainties of historical dimensions for citizens, business and governments.

This is the first paragraph of the contribution of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration CEPA to the HLPF in July 2025. CEPA will hold its twenty-fourth session in New York from Monday, 7 April, to Friday, 11 April 2025. Vice Chair Louis Meuleman is one of the authors of the annual paper on the state and challenges of public institutions. This year, the theme is “Governance and institutional perspectives on advancing sustainable, inclusive, science and evidence-based solutions for the SDGs“. The HLPF contribution is online here, and all other papers for the CEPA session are here.