Getting the Architecture Right: attracting business expertise and action for sustainable development on the road to 2030

By Dr. Louise Kantrow

Governments and stakeholders have spent the first months of 2016 discussing the implementation of the new 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including how the UN will support the agenda as an institution and will monitor and review progress towards 2030.  A key question in these discussions is how the UN will integrate the views of the diverse stakeholders -- essentially all of humanity -- who have an interest in the 2030 Agenda’s success and therefore have an opinion about its implementation at all levels -- globally, regionally and, most importantly, nationally.  While this may seem like an overly bureaucratic and speech-filled exercise, it is actually vital work:  without the right process and structure, it will be much more difficult to identify gaps, track action and impacts, and build bridges not only between governments but also with business and civil society, both of whom are called to action alongside governments to help achieve the 2030 Agenda.

As the outcome documents of the 2030 Agenda recognize themselves, business will play a critical role in its implementation and ultimate achievement in all countries because it's business is the chief engine of economic growth, driver of innovation, and builder of infrastructure that undergirds other social progress. But there are substantial concerns that we do not yet have the structures in place at a policy level to attract and catalyze the requisite business expertise, resources and motivation to aid with implementation.

Challenges to business engagement in the current model

One obstacle to reaching the broad mobilization and knowledge sharing that we need is the current structure for non-state actor (“stakeholder”) engagement in the 2030 Agenda. This architecture is a relic of Agenda 21 from twenty years ago and no longer adequately reflects the diversity and involvement of non-governmental and business entities in the UN’s approach to sustainable development.  The current model lumps business in with all other so-called “major groups,” including important and valued representatives of civil society such as youth, the scientific community, workers, and others. In practice, this means that all of global business -- with its diversity across industries and geographies -- must often be reduced to only a few representatives, and is often expected to join consensus messaging with other stakeholder representatives, some of whom have substantial differences of view with business. This model persists even while it is widely acknowledged that business will shoulder an amount of the implementation burden disproportionate to the aggregate efforts of these other vital stakeholders, whose opinions and concerns must also be heard by Member States.

A proposed solution:  an autonomous Business Coordinating Mechanism to the HLPF

In response to this institutional gap, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) as coordinator of the Global Business Alliance (GBA) for 2030 (an umbrella group of major global industry associations and business organizations) has proposed establishing a High Level Political Forum Business Coordinating Mechanism (HLPF/BCM), which it believes will deliver benefits to both governments and the private sector. The HLPF/BCM would operate as an autonomously governed, distinct business representative entity that will serve as a focal point for Member States, offering comprehensive engagement with the full diversity of business expertise that can inform policy discussions on implementing the 2030 Agenda. 

This distinct and separate track for business participation would follow similar successful models of engagement on Financing for Development (FfD) and the Committee on Food Security (CFS), each of which features separate tracks for the private sector and civil society. These institutional arrangements allow these different stakeholder groups to independently represent themselves and would enable business in particular to take full advantage of the opportunities for engagement established by Resolution A/67/290, which addresses the need for an improved and more effective institutional framework for sustainable development, and stresses the importance of increased participation of relevant stakeholders.

Supported by the GBA, the HLPF/BCM would provide a year-round business interface to the relevant stakeholder focal points at the UN that already reach out to the private sector independently of one another, including the Office of the President of the General Assembly; the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), encompassing both the Division for Sustainable Development (DSD), the Financing for Development (FfD) Office and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Support office; the UN Global Compact, and other agencies and entities, such as the UN Development Program’s (UNDP) SDG Fund.  Having a single point of contact would help with coordination between all of those internal constituencies and would have dramatic efficiencies for the business community.  Specific to the annual meetings of the HLPF, the HLPF/BCM would:  ensure broad and inclusive business participation in the High Level Political Forum; organize and disseminate annual reports on the contributions of business to the achievement of the SDGs; and promote communication and outreach to expand business awareness and increased understanding of the opportunities presented by the HLPF.

The GBA is already coordinating business engagement in Agenda 2030

Building on ICC’s ECOSOC consultative status at the UN since 1946, the GBA is a deep and broad “talent pool” of expertise and resources for the SDGs.  Its partners encompass major global, regional, national, and sectoral business organizations and associations, as well as companies from multinational corporations to small and medium-sized enterprises around the world, all of whom share a vision for the enabling conditions necessary for sustainable development.  The GBA has a proven track-record of serving as the focal point and interlocutor for business at the United Nations throughout the entire intergovernmental processes related to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.  Through the GBA, business is looking forward to participating in July’s High-level Political Forum (HLPF) and as part of that, to report on business progress on implementation of the SDGs. 

The business community welcomes the chance to be part of this conversation and has repeatedly taken every opportunity offered to it to provide its input to the ongoing formulation of the 2030 Agenda, including during the recent debates on the structure of the follow-up and review process at the global level, where the GBA offered its enthusiastic support for the “Elements Paper” and an annual review of all 17 SDGs through the lens of overarching themes.

We have also already started preparing to provide information at the HLPF about business activities in support of the SDGs.  During the recent High-level Thematic Debate (HLTD) on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, the United States Council for International Business (USCIB), the U.S. affiliate of the International Chamber of Commerce, explained how its Business for 2030 platform accelerates business community engagement during the implementation of the 2030 Agenda by providing a target-by-target catalogue of private sector initiatives that contribute to sustainable development (currently 140 initiatives by 35 companies in over 150 countries).  These target-level, specific and impact-driven examples can educate others in the private sector about the 2030 Agenda in a practical way and stimulate them to action, simultaneously allowing Member States to ascertain which companies are focused on which goals/targets within their borders as well as neighboring states.  It is our hope that this collection of case studies and other relevant business experiences can be shared through the formal HLPF/BCM, jump-starting priority-setting conversations about implementation at the global and national levels that involve business from the start and thereby hopefully achieve maximum impact.

That is, after all, the goal: “to leave no one behind.”  Over the course of the next 15 years, the UN and a wide range of stakeholders, particularly business, must work together on effective implementation of the wide-reaching 2030 Agenda and it is clear that countries all over the world will depend on their local business communities to help deliver the SDGs.  It is therefore crucial that the private sector have clear, separate recognition in the HLPF process and throughout the UN system, which will make communication and sharing of views more efficient and clear, improving coordination, sharing of best practices and hopefully, scaling-up successful initiatives within and across borders.

Dr. Louise Kantrow is the Permanent Representative to the United Nations' Economic and Social Council for the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), and in that capacity, coordinates the Global Business Alliance for 2030 and the Business Steering Committee on Financing for Development. 

Business and the 2030 Agenda: A Review & Preview of Business Involvement in the First Steps Toward Implementation

In September 2015, the international community adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This globally agreed blueprint of commitments to reducing poverty and inequality, protecting the environment, and improving the lives of all expands upon the scope and objectives of the Millennium Development Goals, making them universally applicable to governments as well as other important societal partners, notably the private sector. The SDGs signify the global community’s most ambitious vision for sustainable development and their success will ultimately depend on securing the necessary means and resources of implementation.  For business, the 2030 Agenda entails a wide range of policy & market issues, along with a new world of expectations from governments and stakeholders alike. This provides a tremendous opportunity to identify new business opportunities and create new shareholder and stakeholder value.

After the 2030 Agenda and SDGs became operable on January 1, 2016, numerous meetings on implementation have taken place at the UN on specific themes, such as indicators, technology and partnerships, and on the monitoring and review processes, and more deliberations are foreseen throughout the year.  This intense and ongoing activity requires business attention and input to ensure that implementation reflects what the private sector can contribute and considers business priorities to help maximize business engagement and inputs. The achievement of the SDGs critically depends on the success of the multi-stakeholder implementation model, so it is essential to invite business into policy dialogues at the national and global levels to help co-create responses to social problems.

Since the UN has placed so much emphasis on a “revitalized” global partnership for sustainable development in the 2030 Agenda, it is imperative to assess and upgrade private sector engagement in the UN system as it takes its first steps toward implementation.  

In our new policy brief, we:   

• Review relative engagement of the private sector in these first steps of implementation, including meetings of the Technology Facilitation Mechanism, the UN Statistical Committee, and the ECOSOC Partnerships Forum.  
• Preview important next steps to come and opportunities for business to be involved, including at the following meetings and critical milestones:
  • ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development (April 18-21)
  • High-level Thematic Debate on Implementing Commitments on Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Financing (April 21)
  • The Science, Technology and Innovation Forum (June 6-7)
  • High-level Political Forum (July 11-20)

As we document, while there have been some missed opportunities to sufficiently involve business in the first steps of implementation of the 2030 Agenda, there are tremendous opportunities for involving business as a co-equal partner at both the global and national levels. This will require a renewal of the UN’s working methods and executing on the commitment to a renewed partnership for sustainable development, but the business community stands ready to play its part.

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Leveraging Existing Private Sector Sustainability Reporting Frameworks

Tracking all that business is doing to advance the SDGs begins with tuning in to the private sector wavelength on sustainability reporting

Some thoughts on recognizing existing corporate sustainability reporting frameworks within the 2030 Agenda’s follow-up and review mechanisms to galvanize greater business engagement

In the Sustainable Development Summit of September 2015’s outcome document, Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the UN Member States in article 67 “call on all businesses to apply their creativity and innovation to solving sustainable development challenges.” Indeed, that is what business does best -- innovate for problem-solving -- and last year saw major business groups and companies stating their commitment to carry forward 2015’s outcomes. And while SDG target 12.6 “[e]ncourage[s] companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle,” business engagement will go far beyond that: nearly every goal and target are relevant to the business community and will no doubt rely on business involvement to be achieved.

If business’ role is now fully recognized (as compared to the approach taken by the Millennium Development Goals), then presumably there is an expectation that these actions - beyond just sustainable practices and product innovations - in all their diversity are to be reported. Yet serious questions remain about how that would work: Where is this information supposed to go and how will it be utilized in the UN system? How will corporate contributions to sustainability - either through core business operations or philanthropic, CSR efforts - be counted on the national and global scale and integrated into ongoing national and global policy decisions on where to focus our collective energies in the 2030 Agenda?

Unfortunately, the UN currently satisfies itself mostly with a handful of recurring private sector speakers providing anecdotes about their company’s contributions - but there is so much more activity going unnoticed in terms of reporting of business contributions to the thematic goals and specific targets which now comprise the SDGs. The UN is frankly not tuned in to the business wavelength.

At the moment, there are no plans to integrate the emergent SDG indicator framework - which aims at tracking Member State progress towards fulfilling the SDGs - with the myriad existing corporate reporting frameworks, which for decades have enabled companies to report on their contributions and impacts on sustainable development. Nor has there been an invitation on behalf of the UN community to adequately recognize the full breadth of the private sector contributions to the SDGs in a more methodical, statistically sophisticated manner. The slight exception has been the inclusion by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of Business for 2030 as an action network in its Partnerships for SDGs Platform.

This is a substantial missed opportunity. A more formal platform for acknowledgement would dramatically incentivize increased activities from the private sector, and would give true meaning to the notion of a revitalized partnership that lies at the core of the 2030 Agenda.  The power of such a collaborative platform, particularly one paired with existing Official Development Assistance spending, would also enhance our learning about which goals and targets are receiving too much or too little attention in terms of resources and programs so that reprioritization and rebalancing can occur as needed. A good example of the potential of such an approach is on display at the new philanthropy project - SDG Funders - which blends philanthropic donations alongside ODA flows in an accessible and interactive fashion.

Our Business for 2030 catalogue of case studies is a step in the right direction, as it matches company contributions to specific Goals and targets. But this collection is anecdotal and highlights the best of the best in order to demonstrate what is possible to the UN community and to galvanize others in the private sector to take action. What we will need, however, is a big data approach to truly leverage the insights and collective learning that integrating these separate strands of data might yield. There are no doubt technical and likely political complexities to such integration, but the building blocks are in place.

Some initial steps in the right direction

On the business side, corporate reporting on sustainability issues has been dramatically increasing for years. According to the Governance & Accountability institute, over 80 percent of the S&P 500 now files a CSR or sustainability report. In addition, KPMG noted in 2015 that 92 percent of the world’s largest 250 companies produce a CSR or sustainability report.

The trend towards greater reporting on sustainability has had a meteoric curve in recent years, which have seen 180 policies and initiatives on sustainability reporting introduced in 45 countries, roughly two thirds of which are mandatory. All evidence suggests that the trend will continue. For example, the World Federation of Exchanges - the world’s global association for 64 stock exchanges and clearinghouses - recently released a guidance recommending 34 key performance indicators for ESG listing requirements and there are now 38 such exchanges participating in the Sustainable Stock Exchange Initiative.  

Investors continue to respond in kind, with the number of assets under management invested pursuant to socially responsible investment strategies has also increased exponentially in recent years. It would be even better if leading reporting frameworks continued on their trajectory of harmonization so that businesses can reflect what they are a doing in a single, coherent language enabling others to more readily understand their contributions to sustainability and progress on the SDGs.

And what about at the UN? A few initial steps have been taken that could lead towards greater integration, but no one within the UN system has yet stated that as a goal.  For example, the UN has created space for the private sector to participate in the High-Level Political Forum in July 2016, which will be the first accounting of progress on implementation of the SDGs for member states, so there is an opportunity at least for business to share what it is doing - again, anecdotally. In addition, the UN Global Compact, GRI and the WBCSD have jointly created the SDG Compass, which correlates SDG targets to existing corporate reporting frameworks. Another initiative, Measuring What Matters (MWM), is separately seeking to align corporate reporting with the emergent UN SDG framework and even recommended as such to the UN back in 2014. But from a policy and organizational perspective, this integration has yet to be placed on the agenda.

Moving Forward

Over the course of the next fifteen years, and beyond the 2030 Agenda, the business community will play a leading role in mobilizing resources, forming partnerships, and finding innovative ways to alleviate poverty by contributing to economic growth and revolutionizing production processes to be less impactful on and more efficient with our planet’s resources.  Corporate sustainability reporting that is officially recognized -- not mandated, just recognized -- by the United Nations could potentially stimulate increased engagement from the private sector.  At the same time, that reporting needs to reflect and accommodate what business is already disclosing and how.  

Now that we’ve entered the SDGs’ implementation phase, it is time to follow through on the bold ambition for a more collaborative partnership with business; this depends on the UN system becoming attuned to how business tracks and reports its sustainability actions. Member States should evaluate whether current working methods really allow for true partnership and what they could be missing out on by not deepening the private sector’s engagement in policy processes and strategic planning. The SDG indicators are a perfect place to start experimenting with improved working methods.