APC Colombia & UN ESCAP Formalize Partnership To Promote Business Innovation For The Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Presidential Agency for International Cooperation of Colombia (APC Colombia), have formalized a partnership through a Memorandum of Agreement to promote business innovation in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The SDGs have increasingly transformed how the private sector operates to achieve inclusive and sustainable development. Corporations are beginning to realign their priorities with this important development agenda, and innovative business models are arising - such as social enterprises, inclusive businesses, and collective benefit models - in which the purpose and the end goal targets social and environmental challenges, rather than profit exclusively.

In addition, financial institutions are shifting from investing for profit to investment decision schemes that take into consideration variables in terms of positive social and sustainable impact in the business model. However, this trend needs more support to move from the margins to the mainstream economy.

“To achieve the ambitions of the SDGs we need businesses that benefit people and planet as well as profit. Through this partnership, we are aiming to scale up the business innovations urgently needed and create a global movement, to unlock the full potential of the private sector for the SDGs, through South-South Cooperation between the Asia-Pacific and Latin American regions,” said Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP.

“This partnership will focus on supporting policymakers in the Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions to promote business innovation for the SDGs, through South-South Cooperation. This will be achieved through research and analysis of next generation policies to promote sustainable practices within the private sector, knowledge sharing, the development of a policymakers’ network, and hands-on policy advice to governments,” affirmed Viviana Manrique Zuluaga, General Director at APC Colombia.

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