UNCTAD and the Department of National Planning of Colombia jointly organized a national consultative workshop which is part of the activities included in the Development Account 11th Tranche Project titled Enabling policy frameworks for enterprise sustainability and SDG reporting in Africa and Latin America. The national workshop took place from 26-28 of June 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 implementation of the Development Account Project in Colombia entails the following activities: a kick-off meeting; an assessment of the national sustainability reporting structure; a national workshop including the validation of findings; the development of an action plan and capacity building activities. These will be followed by a regional workshop aiming at sharing experience and lessons learned.
The National Consultative Workshop aimed at validating the findings of the implementation of UNCTAD tools, undertaking discussions on sustainability and SDG reporting and agreeing on a preliminary list of priorities, gaps and recommendations. The meeting was attended by 49 participants from 27 key entities including institutions in charge of the implementation of the SDGs and the entities involved in financial and sustainability/SDG reporting at the national level. The first day featured the presentation, discussion and validation of preliminary results of the assessment with the Enterprise sustainability/SDG reporting tool, there was a special focus on Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) and SDG findings. On the second day, there were presentations and discussions on sustainability and SDG reporting at the global level and on the current status in Colombia. Moreover, UNCTAD shared an update on the development of the metadata guidance for indicator 12.6.1. The third day, included a presentation of the Guidance on core indicators for entity reporting on contribution towards implementation of the SDGs (GCI), followed by preliminary findings and discussions of a case study on the implementation of the GCI in a Colombian company. Finally, participants agreed on a preliminary list of priorities, gaps and recommendations for establishing an enabling framework on enterprise sustainability/SDG reporting which will be the basis for the development of an action plan. UNCTAD provided information on next steps and upcoming activities at the national level, including the development of an action plan, an advisory mission and a capacity building activity.
