UNCTAD and the Department of National Planning of Colombia jointly organized a Kick off Meeting on the implementation of the Development Account 11th Tranche Project entitled Enabling policy frameworks for enterprise sustainability and SDG reporting in Africa and Latin America, which took place on the 3rd of April in Bogota, Colombia.
The objective of the project is to strengthen the capacities of Governments to measure and monitor the private sector contribution to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular to provide data on target 12.6 “Encourage companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle” and indicator 12.6.1. “Number of companies publishing sustainability reports.” The project aims at:
- Developing and implementing a tool to enable policy-makers to coordinate efforts among different national authorities in establishing a common reporting framework on sustainability and SDG reporting by companies;
- Providing tools for companies to report on their SDG contribution in a comparable and consistent manner, and in alignment with the SDG monitoring indicators at a macro level;
- Supporting Governments in the collection of comparable and reliable data on companies' contribution towards the SDG implementation aligned with the global framework of SDG indicators;
- Raising awareness and fostering experience-sharing among policy makers and other stakeholders on good practices and lessons learned on enterprise reporting on sustainability and SDG issues.
The expected outputs of the project include the following:
- Enhanced national capacity to measure and monitor the private sector contribution on the implementation of the SDGs;
- Enhanced national capacity to formulate and implement a framework on SDG reporting by companies to facilitate harmonization, comparability and usefulness of the enterprise SDG related data for key stakeholders;
- National action plan on capacity building for high quality sustainability and SDG reporting;
- Assessment Report and a mechanism for further application of the ADT, including with a focus on ESG and SDG reporting;
- Raised awareness on international best practices in the area of sustainability and SDG reporting;
- Fostered coordination and collaboration among policy makers and other stakeholders at the national, regional and international levels in the area of SDG reporting by companies.
The objective of the kick off meeting was to launch the activities at the national level in Colombia. UNCTAD presented the objectives, activities and expected outputs of the project; and provided information on UNCTAD tools, such as the Accounting Development Tool (ADT) and the Guidance on Core Indicators (GCI) that will be used during the implementation of the project. It also discussed the relevance of the project to the Metadata Guidance on the SDG indicator 12.6.1 which is being developed by UNCTAD as a co-custodian of this indicators jointly with UN Environment. UNCTAD’s resource person in the country presented the results of the previous implementation of the ADT in 2017 and explained the adaptation made to the ADT for the objectives of the project, in particular how it will be used towards development of an enabling policy framework for enterprise sustainability and SDG reporting.
The kick off meeting was attended by 44 participants from 30 key entities including institutions in charge of the implementation -f the SDGs, as well as those entities involved in financial and non-financial reporting at the national level. It will be followed by a 3-day national workshop tentatively scheduled from 26 till 28 of June.
The project is financed by the United Nations Development Account. There are 4 beneficiary countries including Brazil, Colombia, Kenya and South Africa. Activities in Colombia are implemented by UNCTAD in collaboration with the Department of National Planning. It also builds on UNCTAD cooperation with UN Environment and UN DESA in the area of the SDG reporting; as well as on coordination with other key players on these matters.
