Without major private sector involvement, sustainable goals will be out of reach: UN

Istanbul: Achieving the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be virtually impossible if the private sector doesn’t immediately start scaling up its efforts to end poverty and protect the planet, the UN development agency said at a recent summit on sustainable development.

“Businesses are increasingly joining the fight to create a better world by 2030, and that’s incredibly good news, but at the current rate, we’re going to miss the opportunity”, said Cihan Sultanoğlu, the Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

“We need private companies to find practical ways of making a fundamental difference in people’s lives,” she added. “This means establishing game-changing strategies for creating jobs and markets among the poor, safeguarding human rights, but also tackling climate change through boosting green technologies and ending wasteful consumption patterns.”

The Bosphorus Summit offered a space for discussion among decision-makers and leaders in politics, business, education, and other disciplines on how to boost collective action and tackle the world’s most pressing issues. More than 2,000 delegates attended.

“Soon, the business case for not getting deeply involved in global development is going to be hard to make,” said Marcos Neto, who heads the United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) Istanbul-based center on the private sector in development.

A conference held in Addis Ababa in July made clear that the private sector had a huge role to play in financing a $ 3 trillion yearly funding gap for the SDGs. It also pointed out that businesses play an important role in research, development and innovation, as well as changing attitudes.

“In fact, private companies are likely to lose steam if they don’t contribute to improving business environments, explore new markets among millions of potential customers in the South, and establish better relations with their employees, customers and stakeholders.”

During the three day summit, UNDP will host six panels where concrete examples of business involvement in development will be showcased. UNDP and other participants will also make the point that the private sector needs governments to create the right environments, for instance by setting achievable targets, promoting laws that make business operations easier and facilitating partnerships with financial institutions, foundations and others.

The Bosphorus Summit paved the way for the production of practical guidelines for businesses and government collaboration in development.

UNDP has been pioneering and bringing to scale new business partnerships. In Iraq and Somalia, of instance, it is helping to create jobs for youth considered at risk of being recruited by criminal or extremist groups. UNDP is also working with Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to develop markets in the food industry.

Two reports will be launched during the summit: Inclusive Markets in Brazil: Challenges and Opportunities for Business, and: Business + Inclusive Business: A New, Sustainable and Innovative Private Sector.

The result of a partnership with the Government of Turkey, the UNDP Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development (IICPSD) builds on the country’s convening power and dynamic private sector as well as UNDP’s global mandate to engage with companies constructively in supporting global and local efforts to address development challenges.