ISAR: Measuring the private sector's contribution to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals

The thematic focus of the event will be on discussing means of facilitating harmonization and comparability of companies reporting on their contribution towards the SDG implementation.

This will be accomplished by:

1. Sharing good practices and challenges on private sector reporting on its contribution towards the SDG implementation. Ways to advance consistency and comparability of the SDG related data at a company level will be explored to enhance the usefulness of reporting for key stakeholders such as investors, consumers, and governments;

2. Exploring ways of aligning SDG data at a company level with relevant SDG indicators at a macro level, including for the purposes of Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs);

3. Examining feedback received on practical implementation of existing reporting frameworks, including on the application of a limited number of core SDG indicators for companies launched at the 35^th session of the Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting (ISAR) of UNCTAD. These include data related to climate change and environment protection; rational use of natural resources, such as energy and water; waste reduction; on social issues such as employee health and safety, employee training, gender balance and good governance, among others; and

4. Identifying capacity building gaps and needs in both the public and private sectors in the area of SDG reporting by companies.

Interactive participation will be encouraged among representatives from the United Nations permanent missions and from capitals, United Nations agencies, funds and programs, and other international organizations, prominent leaders from the private sector and civil society, and other stakeholders.

Objective and Outcome:

The event will raise awareness of good practices, important initiatives and challenges on company reporting on SDG related issues. It will contribute to facilitate stakeholder dialogue on this issue by bringing a variety of perspectives from the public and private sectors, with a view to building consensus. It will also assist in building an interface between SDG reporting at a company level and statistic data collection at the national level.

It is expected that parties will reconfirm an important role of enterprise reporting in the attainment of the SDGs, to be accomplished inter alia by promoting the integration of sustainability information into companies' reporting cycle, as well as good practices on measuring the private sector contribution to SDG implementation in a consistent and comparable manner, and a need for baseline indicators as a starting point in this regard.

Organizing Partners:

The event is co-organized by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Government of Guatemala, and the Statistics Denmark. Supporters include the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD), and the Academy of Financial Management of Ukraine.

Speakers and Discussants [in progress]:

Confirmed speakers include Mr. Miguel Ángel Moir, Minister of Planning, Guatemala; Lucas Gómez García, Director of the Department of National Planning of Colombia; Søren Schiønning Andersen, Director of Business Statistics, Statistics Denmark; Ivo Havinga, Head of Statistic Branch, UN DESA; Anne Gadegaard Associate Director, Corporate Sustainability, Novo Nordisk; Tetiana Iefymenko, President, Academy of Financial Management, Ukraine; James Gomme, Director, Sustainable Development Goals, World Business Council on Sustainable Development; Richard V. Rothenberg, Executive Director, GlobalA.I.Corporation; Bernhard Frey, Senior Manager, SDG Impact and Reporting, UN Global Compact Office.

Structure of the event: