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February 10, 2015
UN opens for business: the Sustainable Development Goals Fund explained



 Paloma Durán heads the new Sustainable Development Goals Fund, the first development cooperation mechanism specifically created to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which will be finalized at the UN next September. The SDG Fund builds upon experience with the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Achievement Fund, one of the largest initiatives for MDG attainment, reaching more than 9 million people. Initiated with a contribution from the Spanish government, the fund is connecting UN agencies, governments, civil society and businesses in sustainable-development programs. One of its priorities is finding new venues for businesses to participate in UN-led development cooperation programs.

What exactly is the SDG Fund and how can companies learn from its activities going forward?

The SDG Fund brings together UN agencies, national governments, academia, civil society and businesses on integrated actions to reduce poverty, improve nutrition and provide access to affordable water and sanitation. While working with the MDG Fund from 2007 to 2014, we realized that collaborations between UN agencies and national counterparts could be highly effective. But achieving sustainability – which combines economic growth, social progress and environmental protection – requires us to go the extra mile. Only when businesses are part of development programs can we achieve this.

We have found that businesses are very interested in the development work of the UN and in forging partnerships. In fact many businesses have been doing “development” work for long time, even if they do not call it that. Collaboration among businesses, governments and the UN is not always easy. However, as an intergovernmental organization, the UN has only recently started to develop an infrastructure for engaging with the private sector. This is one of the challenges that the SDG Fund will face.

Much of the UN seems to operate in its own world. Are there ways that companies new to development can get involved and explore development opportunities? How does the SDG Fund address this?

The UN is embarking on several initiatives to explore how businesses can drive development. Global Compact, the Business Call to Action, thePartnerships Office, and each of the many UN agencies’ private-sector strategies are good examples. But more is needed. The SDG Fund’s private-sector strategy has two goals: involving businesses in each of our programs in the field from the start and creating a global business advisory council.

We were surprised to learn that businesses are rarely invited to participate in country-level discussions to design UN programs. Conversations with businesses are usually initiated at a second stage, after the programs have begun. That makes UN-private sector collaboration much more difficult. At the SDG Fund, we wanted to put businesses at the negotiating table from the beginning, so we consulted private-sector representatives in the 18 countries where we are rolling out our first programs. The response was very positive and, to our surprise, some businesses are so committed that they have even decided to contribute their own funding. For example, in Cauca, Colombia, which is one of the zones most affected by armed conflict, coffee growers are contributing both expertise and financing to a program for the sustainable production and commercialization of indigenous crops. This is one way that the SDG Fund will create employment, support livelihoods, improve nutrition and most importantly, achieve peace.

The SDG Fund Secretariat at UN headquarters is also creating a business advisory council that includes leaders from various industries worldwide. We want them to help us build a roadmap for how public-private alliances can provide large-scale solutions for achieving the new SDGs.

There are people who think that the growing interest of the UN in partnering with business is a compensation for the reduction in UN agencies’ budgets. Do you agree?

Not at all. On the contrary, we have realized that focusing only on companies’ financial contributions to our work can be shortsighted and counterproductive. It is true that sometimes development agencies and NGOs see businesses’ social corporate responsibility as a source of funding. But public-private alliances in development go far beyond that. We should grasp what Michael Porter and Mark Kramer call “the shared value” of companies – that is, understanding that the value of a company includes the way it addresses societal needs and challenges.

In Guatemala for example, we started working with Fundacion Tigo, the philanthropy arm of a telecommunications provider of the same name. The project began as a philanthropic initiative to refurbish some schools. But few months later, we realized we could go further and we started working with Tigo’s engineers to set up a mobile system for monitoring nutrition. Now, with cell phones, health workers can monitor anemia, stunting and other nutritional deficiencies in remote communities at a very low cost.

Given that the SDG Fund will focus on inclusive economic growth for poverty eradication, food security and nutrition, and water and sanitation, how will the fund build upon lessons learned from the MDGs?

Our experience indicates that development goals are powerful triggers for action. The MDGs brought to the frontlines of development priorities that had been abandoned in the past. These and other pressing issues that demand our collective action will be included in the SDGs.

One of the lessons we learned is that there no silver-bullet solutions to development problems. Innovation is essential. When asked to think of real innovators, our lists include many entrepreneurs and business people. Each community needs people who can provide efficient solutions to social and environmental challenges. Businesses are well positioned to deploy these innovative responses.

Another lesson is the need to turn economic growth into inclusive growth. The current debate on inequality reflects the realization that economic growth does not mean growth for all. In Mozambique, the finding of natural gas reserves and other mega-projects raised economic expectations among young people, but the energy industry has fallen short of job creation expectations. In a deeper analysis, the UN team realized that there is an enormous mismatch between the skills needed by big companies and local capacities. In 2015, we are initiating a new program to turn this situation around. In coordination with gas companies, we are training young women and men in the skills these companies need such as specialized plumbing. The program will also support local small businesses and their linkages with the multinational enterprises operating in their region.


 This interview was originally published by The Guardian 28 of January of 2015. Read at The Guardian website.