One year ago, the SDG Fund´s Private Sector Advisory Group launched its first report with a clear objective:
to understand how the United Nations and the private sector could better work together and partner to
achieve the new Sustainable Development Goals. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
clearly recognizes a prominent role for the private sector. Alliances and innovative partnerships between
governments, businesses, civil society and UN Agencies are also clearly central to meeting the needs of such an ambitious agenda. Most telling from the report was a key conclusion: businesses want and need to be brought to the table from the very start. Developing partnerships and initiatives must mean that relationships are aligned from the beginning. For companies, true collaboration often means co-investment, but also working to codesign and participating in the implementation and evaluation process.
At the SDG Fund, a multi-donor and multi-agency UN mechanism, we are taking these conclusions to heart, and as a result we are eager to continue to devise a greater understanding of engagement as well as build on a new generation of public-private partnerships in the field.
Tackling some of the most pressing challenges requires a diverse array of investment and impetus from both governments and businesses.