The Sustainable Development Goals
How businesses are partnering to achieve the SDGs
How you lead your business matters. Really matters. It matters to your team, to your results, and to your business’s impact in the world. Most leaders sit on a mountain of value in their business, without ever realising it can be used as a force for good.
“Consumers expect companies to have a more meaningful reason for being beyond the products they create. They need a reason to like you, defend you or champion you — and price and quality are no longer enough.” - Cone & Porter Novelli, 2018
A belief-driven buyer is someone who will choose, switch, avoid or boycott a brand based on its stand on societal issues. In 2017, 51% of people were belief-driven buyers. In 2018, that had risen to 64% of people. And it’s true across age, gender, income levels and country, and it’s growing year by year. (Edelman, Earned Brand Global Report, 2018)
Doing good matters to your customers and clients.
Unilever found a similar thing. In 2017 their purpose-led Sustainable Living brands grew 46% faster than the rest of their brands. In 2018, they grew 69% faster.
Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever from 2009-2018, says, “we have long known about the many challenges we are facing - inequality, poverty … and I have always believed that everyone - including business – has a role to play in addressing them. Business needs to be part of the solution... We cannot be bystanders. Stronger alignment of business with societal interest and planning for the long-term is the only way to guarantee sustained success and longevity, for our business, and for our planet.”
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also referred to as the Global Goals, are the world’s plan to create a better world by ending poverty, fighting inequality and addressing the urgency of climate change.
No matter what business you are in you are already in the business of solving problems - your business solves problems for your customers or clients. What if you not only solved problems for your clients, but began leveraging your business to solve some of the world’s problems?
You can use your business to do what matters. And you can profit from it. Doing good, is good for business.
I help business leaders leverage their businesses to focus on seven SDGs.
GOAL 1 END POVERTY IN ALL ITS FORMS EVERYWHERE
The target is to eradicate extreme poverty, measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day. Businesses partner with Free To Shine to achieve this goal by providing safety visits with families to address complex factors interlinked with poverty; such as unemployment, debt, illness, migration, hunger, addiction, violence and family breakdown. Families need help keeping themselves and their children safe while they climb their way out of extreme poverty.
GOAL 2 END HUNGER, ACHIEVE FOOD SECURITY AND IMPROVED NUTRITION AND PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
The target is to end hunger and ensure access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round. Businesses partner with Free To Shine to achieve this goal by supplying families with different types of seeds, information about their nutritional content, and instruction on how to grow them, assisting families to grow enough fruits and vegetables to not only feed themselves, but also to sell any excess at the market.
GOAL 4 ENSURE INCLUSIVE AND QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL AND PROMOTE LIFELONG LEARNING
The target is to ensure free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education with relevant and effective learning outcomes. Businesses partner with Free To Shine to achieve this goal by providing the educational support and materials necessary for girls to access school including uniforms, books, pens, a backpack, and a bike, and providing the essential access to additional curriculum classes so girls can progress to the next grade.
GOAL 5 ACHIEVE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER ALL WOMEN AND GIRLS
The targets are to eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation; and ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision making in political, economic and public life. Businesses partner with Free To Shine to achieve this goal by preventing the trafficking and exploitation of girls by strengthening family and community systems to prioritise the safety and education of their children. They provide leadership skills training, mentorship, and project management training to emerging leaders, and invest in university education to develop the next generation of Cambodian women leaders.
GOAL 6 ENSURE ACCESS TO WATER AND SANITATION FOR ALL
The target is to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all. Businesses partner with Free To Shine to achieve this goal by providing families who would otherwise source their water from wells, ponds and streams, often becoming sick, with a locally made water filter.
GOAL 8 PROMOTE INCLUSIVE AND SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH, EMPLOYMENT AND DECENT WORK FOR ALL
The target is to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking, and secure the prohibition and elimination of child labour. Businesses partner with Free To Shine to achieve this goal by increasing girls’ access to school, reducing their vulnerability to trafficking. Getting girls into schools, and keeping them there, is vital to reducing their vulnerability to trafficking. Businesses provide safety visits at home and school as well as workplace safety assessments.
GOAL 16 PROMOTE JUST, PEACEFUL AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETIES
The targets are to significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere; end abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children; promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all; and develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels. Businesses help Free To Shine achieve this goal by partnering with communities and local government to strengthen systems. They keep women and children safe from violence by providing social work interventions which include safety planning, addressing risk factors, and increasing protective factors. Businesses also partner with us to fund law degrees for emerging leaders to improve people’s access to justice.
Businesses can work with Free To Shine through a program called Business Matters, which is an effective way for businesses to engage in making a real impact in the world, while building their business at the same time. Those who join Business Matters align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, gain a competitive advantage, attract more clients, drive higher profits, motivate and engage their team, and help solve world problems.
For more information contact us at businessmatters@freetoshine.org
#SustainableDevelopmentGoals #GlobalGoals #UnitedNations #WeThePeople
Nicky Mih believes in our capacity to live and lead differently. She speaks at conferences around the world including across Australia, the UK, Cambodia, Singapore and Bali. And is the author of the best selling book Do What Matters ….