Author: Rt Hon Lord Jack McConnell, Co-Chair of the APPG on the UN Global Goals

The United Nation’s SDG Progress Report, published last year, revealed that no country was on track to achieve the Global Goals by 2030. With time running out, the APPG for the UN Global Goals, Coalition for Global Prosperity, International Chamber of Commerce and Project Everyone met in Westminster this week to discuss how business and government can renew the drive towards a fairer, more prosperous world and deliver the Global Goals in the Decade of Action.

The half day conference included speakers from the UK government, the International Chamber of Commerce, Aviva, PwC, Diageo, SSE and Centrica. The discussions analysed the differing ways the private sector can impact, guide and deliver the Global Goals. What was clear was the understanding the private sector can take more than a financial role in this delivery. As a sector, it can help guarantee delivery of crucial goals such as Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth - through investment and trade. Business will be the leading force for Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure through advances in FinTech, sustainable energy and backing entrepreneurs. But private sector involvement in other, less definitively linked Goals such as Climate Action, and Responsible Consumption and Production, will also be critical to their achievement.

“The Global Goals are our best chance to bring an end to extreme poverty, prevent violent conflict and halt the destruction of our environment but there is a real risk that the 2030 targets will be missed - and by a significant margin.”

- Rt Hon Lord Jack McConnell & Gillian Keegan MP

Organisations like the International Chamber of Commerce have been mobilising globally to ensure the delivery of the Goals through their development of the Business Charter for Sustainable Development. This has been specifically designed to help companies contribute to the SDG’s. SSE have taken the decision to directly link their executive remuneration policy to the commitment and implementation of the Goals. Aviva launched the World Benchmarking Alliance in 2018 – a public, transparent and authoritative league table that ranks countries on their contribution to the SDG’s. And PwC have reported on the level of real commitment in over 1000 of the world’s leading companies. It is not enough for one sector to scrutinise the other, there must be scrutiny and commitment and mobilisation within sectors in order to hold each other to account and ensure all are doing everything they can.

The Global Goals are our best chance to bring an end to extreme poverty, prevent violent conflict and halt the destruction of our environment but there is a real risk that the 2030 targets will be missed - and by a significant margin. In recent decades, there has been some real progress - less than 10% around the world now live in extreme poverty, down from 37% in 1990. Yet growing wealth has been accompanied by rising inequality.

In Nigeria, GDP is booming, but an astounding 87 million Nigerians still live on less than £1.90 a day. And, despite being home to 5 of the top 10 fastest growing economies in the world, less than one in 20 rural girls in Sub-Saharan Africa will complete secondary school. Elsewhere extreme weather events destroy livelihoods and infrastructure when better resilience is possible. And across the world corruption and poor legal systems make the generation of sustainable economic activity and investment challenging.

Parliamentarians joined Sir Richard Curtis CBE at the Coalition’s event ‘British Leadership on the Sustainable Development Goals’ in 2018.

Urgent action is needed. To deliver this inclusive economy, businesses need to take their role in sustainability seriously. Creating jobs, ensuring decent work, and committing to climate action are only some of the targets the corporate sector can aim to achieve. And many have made taken critical steps on these but we cannot work in isolation. Government and business need to work together to build a fairer, more prosperous world.

Global challenges like war, poverty, irresponsible consumption and poor government hurt the most vulnerable most, but the consequences are felt by all. Britain has, for a long time, committed to global peace and prosperity, and that commitment will prove vital in the decade to come. Global partnerships and investment will be key to ensuring everyone has the chance to live in a fairer, safer and cleaner world. With 10 years to go, let us unite with renewed vigour behind a mission to unlock the potential of each sector and work in partnership to deliver the Global Goals.