Governments, businesses can work together to achieve sustainable development: UN

Governments and businesses can work together to encourage sustainable development, Michael O'Neill, the deputy administrator of the UN Development Program (UNDP), said here Tuesday.

"We need to recognize the complimentary roles of the public and private sectors for encouraging development and fostering innovation," said O' Neill.

"For the UNDP working with the private sector is an essential part of supporting economic growth and job creation in countries around the world." she said.

O'Neill said that collaboration between the UN, governments and the private sector takes many forms, such as including low income groups in business activities and using innovative new technologies for development.

O'Neill made the statement as he was speaking at the launch of a new report titled "Business and the United Nations," published jointly by the Harvard Kennedy School, the business network Business Fights Poverty and development cooperation organization, the Sustainable Development Goals Fund.

The report's co-author Jane Nelson, director of the corporate social responsibility initiative at Harvard Kennedy School, told the meeting that the UN could play an important role in bringing businesses and governments together to achieve sustainable development.

"We're going to find new ways of communication, of collaboration between sectors, between business, government, the United Nations, other international organizations and civil society," said Nelson.

"I think here the United Nations has a particularly important role to play," she said. "It can help convene actors, particularly at the country level in a way that inspires and influences action."

Nelson said that companies of all sizes should be thinking about what they can do to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, a set of 17 economic, social and environmental goals, which all 193 members of the United Nations will aim to reach by the year 2030.

"I think every single company, in every single industry sector, of every size, should be thinking how do my core products, services, technologies, processes, business partnerships and business models help or undermine the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals -- and what can I do as a company ... to help to achieve the goals," she said.

The report includes several examples of the different ways that companies can contribute to sustainable development.

One example is Tongwei Group from China, which partnered philanthropically with the Chinese government to donate large quantities of solar photovoltaic (PV) equipment to help response efforts after earthquakes and other natural disasters. Endi