SDG Business dialogue – 11 march 2021

Taking place for the first time at the Regional Forum on Sustainable Development for the UNECE Region, the SDG Business Dialogue will be a unique multi-stakeholder conversation on business action and partnerships to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the context of the COVID-19 recovery. Participants will explore how partnerships, alliances and business innovation can accelerate sustainable development in the region.

The dialogue will feature the following sessions:

Session I. Accelerating progress, overcoming setbacks: innovative business solutions for a changing world
The COVID-19 pandemic has created untold disruption, severely hitting sectors that rely on personal contacts and testing the resilience of supply lines. Multiple shocks have reversed the progress achieved so far in advancing the SDGs in many areas. At the same time, this unprecedented crisis has shown the ability of the business sector to adapt to new challenges and to innovate in difficult conditions. Digitalization has leapt forward, and new forms of collaboration have emerged. Recognizing the need to recover the lost ground and to dramatically accelerate progress, taking advantage of new opportunities, the first session of the SDG Business Dialogue will focus on how to promote, disseminate and scale business innovation to achieve the SDGs. It will explore how the collaboration between the business sector and public authorities can provide impetus to the recovery while advancing solutions that contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.