April Newsletter: Governance, the private sector and sustainable development

 8 April, 2013
 www.stakeholderforum.org
Good governance, the private sector and sustainable development
 

 
Rio+20 clearly outlined a more prominent role for the private sector in the delivery of sustainable development, requiring a just transition to a fair and green economy in which business and industry take greater responsibility for their impacts, operate with greater transparency and are held accountable for unsustainable activities. The recent post-2015 meeting in Bali reinforced the role of the private sector as a partner in the delivery of sustainable development, including via sustainable consumption and production, and financing.
 
Undoubtedly business will have a key part to play in our necessary transition to sustainability. But this must be complemented with the development of mechanisms for good governance, with a focus on engendering proper levels of transparency and accountability from private and public sectors, as well as civil society. The aim must be a coordinated and responsible approach to sustainable development with all sectors of society acting together; anything less is unlikely to bring about the sustainable future we need.
 
Farooq Ullah, Executive Director, Stakeholder Forum
 
In recent years, there has been an increased interest in corporate sustainability reporting and corporate disclosure policies, alongside more intense scrutiny of the relevance and accuracy of this information. This brings new challenges for their application, and requires an informed and constructive debate to enable corporate reporting to succeed in aligning companies’ activities with good governance, human rights and environmental protection.  
 
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Coalition, a group of investors, financial institutions, professional bodies, NGOs and other relevant stakeholders calling for the inclusion of corporate transparency and accountability as a building block underpinning the Post-2015 development agenda, has made a submission to My World.
 
The Business and Industry, Scientific and Technological Community and Local Authorities Major Groups delivered a joint statement to the First Session of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 
 
Date: 17 April 2013 18:00-19:30 (GMT)
 
Venue: Overseas Development Institute  in London (streamed live online)
 
Organisers: Stakeholder Forum, Business Fights Poverty, and ODI
 
As we approach 2015, the target date for the internationally-agreed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), discussions on what will replace them are gaining momentum. While there have been a number of conversations about the role of the private sector in a new framework, there have been few specific suggestions on how businesses could become involved in a new set of goals.
 Additional Resources
 
 
View and submit proposals for post-2015 to feed into the intergovernmental process on SDGs.
 
Stakeholder Forum is working towards enhancing the participation of stakeholders in the intergovernmental processes on sustainable development goals (SDGs) and post-2015 development agenda. We invite you to take part in a short survey to tell us your priorities for knowledge and capacity building in relation to new development goals.
 
Post-2015 thematic papers Background resources on the 11 United Nations thematic consultations.
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