UN Resident Coordinator Joe Colombano attended ESCAP’s 9th North-East Asia Multistakeholder Forum on Sustainable Development, held on 22 and 23 October 2025 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The Forum focused on the progress of the North-East Aisa region on achieving Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation; Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy; Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure; Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities; and Goal 17: Partnerships. The Forum is an important part of the consultative process in preparation of the 13th Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD) in February 2026, which, in turn, will inform the global review of progress in sustainable development at the 2025 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in New York in the summer of 2026. On the margins of the Forum, the RC met a number of member states and other counterparts, to update them on his efforts and seek their support and guidance on the way forward.
Separately, the RC also paid a visit on Jaap van Hierden, the UN Resident Coordinator in Mongolia, at the UN House in Ulaanbaatar, where preparations for UN Day were in full swing.