March 24, 2017
Partnering in sustainability key to achieve SDGs

The SDG Fund shares experiences and lessons learned at the The Economist Sustainability Summit in London

Paloma Duran, SDG Fund Director, in her opening keynote remarks at The Economist Sustainability Summit in London offered that for companies to advance sustainability—they must first look beyond just an environmental perspective. Social justice, inclusive economic growth and environmental protection, the the so-called three dimensions of sustainable development must go hand in hand.

Referring to Sustainable Development Goals, the list of 17 goals approved at the UN General Assembly, in 2015 for a period of 15 years, Duran acknowledged that “implementing SDGs can be daunting, but progress in one area will also mean progress elsewhere. Working on select goals will also provide a positive impact on other critical SDGs in an effort to alleviate poverty”.

Using the SDG Fund’s work already underway in 23 countries, Ms. Duran further explained how the three dimensions of sustainability are clearly linked and while the goals can be tackled individually, it is clear that both the public and private sector must work with a integrated approach to development, moving beyond silos and in a manner that recognizes the interconnectedness among goals.

She also described the mission of the SDG Fund which is a United Nations mechanism that works across different UN Agencies and with public and private partners to put into action the principles of SDGs. Created in 2014 the Fund has become a platform for investing in sustainable and some very innovative partnerships.

In her remarks, Ms Duran explored the question of how to transform the SDG principle into action. Offering the central issue of partnerships as an area that the SDG Fund has focused on when it established a Private Sector Advisory Group. The groups is now working to engage with companies from all parts of the world in order to better understand how the United Nations can contribute to sustainability from a business perspective. ”We learned many things in this process—mainly and quite simply that we at the UN must find a common language and to stop merely treating the private sector as a donor. The private sector wants to be engaged in programs from the inception and included in a deeper understanding of the investment, implementation and evaluation of projects”.

She concluded that as the world is facing new challenges, where the relationships between countries, between private and public sector are under pressure- the sustainable development goals provide a new framework to address issues linked to the environmental, climate change, peace and security- refugee movements, as well as poverty, unemployment—with all these issues are as factors.

The Economic audience featured a cross section of experts and policy makers, including key private sector perspective from Mark Wilson, Chief Executive Officer, Aviva and Bob Collymore, CEO of Safaricomoffering insight on both challenges and opportunities for the future.