New York, July 2025 — The High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) 2025 concluded in New York, marking a crucial moment in the journey toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Under the theme “Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity: Accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda in times of crisis”, this year’s Forum brought together governments, civil society, faith-based organizations, youth, and grassroots movements to reflect on progress, identify gaps, and renew commitments.
Key Takeaways from HLPF 2025
With just five years remaining until 2030, the Forum highlighted that progress on several of of the SDGs remains far too slow. Multiple overlapping crises— climate change, conflict, global inequality, and displacement— continue to widen the gap between commitment and action.
Traditionally excluded: indigenous peoples, migrants, persons with disabilities, women, and faith-based actors, civil society coalitions, including religious networks like the Justice Coalition of Religious (JCoR), played a visible role in pushing for accountability and justice.
There was a renewed push for integrated solutions—addressing poverty, climate, and conflict not as separate issues, but as deeply interconnected. The call to “leave no one behind” must be more than a slogan; it requires structural change.
Faith actors were recognized for their unique ability to reach the most vulnerable, build peace, and foster trust in communities. Their presence in both policy spaces and remote villages bridges the global and the local.
What Does This Mean for us, Vincentian Family?
As Vincentians, our charism calls us to stand alongside those most abandoned. The outcomes of the HLPF 2025 are not distant or abstract— they are an urgent Vincentian call to action. Wherever we are— from UN halls to the peripheries— our charism calls us to listen to those who suffer most from broken systems; to act locally and globally; to respond with justice, creativity, and compassion; to educate others about the SDGs, human rights, and the Gospel call to action; to advocate for the protection of people and planet, not as spectators but as agents of change; to listen deeply to the cries of the poor, displaced, and excluded— especially in places where we live and serve; to advocate boldly for systemic change at all levels, from the parish to the United Nations; to collaborate widely, strengthening partnerships with NGOs, other faith traditions, and grassroots networks who share our mission of justice and mercy; to educate prophetically, ensuring our communities and youth understand the SDGs, human rights, and their own power to transform the world.
A Vincentian Call to Action
In the face of today’s global challenges, we are not helpless— we are called. Let the Vincentian world respond to the HLPF 2025 not with silence or fatigue, but with creative courage. Whether in a favela, a classroom, a refugee camp, or a UN negotiation room, let us walk together with those who are poor, offering hope, dignity, and justice.
The road to 2030 is short, but our legacy can be long. As Vincentians, let us ask not what the world will do, but what we must do, together.
“We are the ones we have been waiting for.” J. Jordan at the UN 1978
Let the Vincentian Family rise to this Kairos moment— with faith, with love, with action.
Excellent, Michelle, thank you. It can all seem so distant from ordinary life but you help here to make a strong and needed connection, esoecially since the Vincentian Question always is “What must be done.”