Blog Post

How to Make SDGs Europe's Business: A Multi-Stakeholder Approach

  • By SDSN-intern
  • •
  • 07 Jul, 2016
  • •

Informal Conference Summary
30-31 May 2016, Brussels

On the 30th and 31st of May 2016, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, the SDG Charter, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) jointly convened a multi-stakeholder meeting in Brussels to explore the question of how to make the SDG’s Europe’s Business. Over 200 participants with a wide variety of professional and regional backgrounds – including European institutions, governments, large and small businesses, financial institutions, philanthropists, academia, and civil society, including trade unions, youth representatives and NGOs with environmental, developmental and social foci – were challenged to explore ways to make the SDGs a reality both within and outside the European Union. This informal conference summary outlines the conclusions from the discussion and suggestions for next steps.

At the same time, the SDGs are an opportunity for introspection and change. Europe should use the 2030 Agenda to develop a positive transformational narrative for a sustainable Europe, connecting long-term objectives with short-term actions. While Europe is well placed to attain the goals, a number of challenges remain and require urgent action. Tackling climate change requires a clear, long-term pathway for the energy transition to drives science-based policies. Migration, unemployment – particularly among young populations – and rising inequality all pose real challenges. Environmental action is needed to ensure planetary boundaries are respected. Europe may want to rethink its present growth model so as to effectively address these issues. It should also encourage regional integration and cross-country cooperation with partners across the globe to ensure no one is left behind. Good governance fostering coordination and coherence is an imperative to meet these challenges.

As one of the wealthiest and most equal regions in the world, benefiting from high-levels of education, skills and technological know-how, Europe is in a position to drive change within its borders and lead on the global scene if it uses the SDGs as a guide for innovation. The SDGs can also function as a scorecard and an agenda for social and economic change when integrated into the strategies of businesses, governments and other actors.

The integrated approach illustrated by the five P’s (people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership) as well as a changing global environment, require new ways of cooperating. Multi-stakeholder partnerships are needed to implement the SDGs at all levels, as no stakeholder alone can uphold or execute this ambitious agenda. This implies the involvement of local, national and regional governments; large companies and SMEs; financial institutions and philanthropists; civil society actors in the environment, development and social spaces; trade unions, universities and youth organisations. The general public also needs to get engaged more so that European citizens can play an educated, constructive role as consumers, investors and drivers of social transformation. Younger generations in particular have a key role to play in developing new solutions and challenging existing frameworks, and all efforts should be made to promote gender equality.

Governments can use the political opportunity provided by the SDGs to act as brokers and leverage their budgets to mobilize private financing. Suitable platforms and forums should be provided at local, national, and community levels, ensuring transparency and enhancing the dialogue between governments and nongovernmental stakeholders as well as creating mutual understanding and cooperation between stakeholders across different sectors and constituencies. The role of regulation was a key topic of debate, as the right balance needs to be struck to ensure that regulation has the desired effect: to promote innovation across sectors, to ensure that all stakeholders work towards achieving the SDGs, and to allow bottom-up approaches to develop.

The SDGs provide a clear business case with real opportunities for investment. Business leaders emphasized the need for companies to actively contribute to and lead on the SDGs, including in vital sectors such as infrastructure, the energy transition or food production. More broadly, businesses need to promote a circular economy and sustainable value chains. Key steps in ensuring success include the alignment of business strategies with the SDG agenda, the promotion of integrated thinking, stakeholder engagement, and active support for action-oriented platforms and incubators. While many companies have recognized the huge investment opportunities that the SDGs represent, a focus should also be on promoting business models that are inherently sustainable and to actively engage small and medium enterprises which have limited capacity to act. Industrial transformation processes have to be accompanied with active employment policies in order to ensure a just transition and the creation of decent work.

On day two, eight workshops were organised around themes spanning the SDGs. The 150 participants discussed practical approaches to working together on the SDGs in Europe. Each workshop arrived at specific and actionable recommendations, which participants will now pursue. Highlights include:

  • Calls for the exploration an SDG Charter initiative at the European level to catalyse multi-stakeholder partnerships at the national or European level. The main challenges identified were how to ensure fair roles for each stakeholder, a strong connection to local realities and the establishment of the policy preconditions for partnerships. The main opportunity identified was to remove barriers for solution-oriented collaboration across sectors and borders, enabling the scaling up of the many existing initiatives.
  • Europe needs to develop a joint, long-term narrative using the SDGs as the principal guidelines for external and internal European policies, drive behavioural change and move away from the “dead end” of “business-as-usual”. The newly established The World in 2050 Consortium will explore this question in the coming years.
  • Urban experts reviewed lessons from the EU’s sustainable urban development policies of the last few decades, and engaged European Commission officials on how this experience and expertise can support the implementation of the urban SDGs across all EU members in an integrated manner, and be extended to development partners across the world.
  • An agreement on sustainable garment and textile production was presented in the Netherlands in March. Participants to a workshop on sustainable value chains explored how these agreements could become European-level multi-stakeholder initiatives and planned follow-up discussions.
  • Europe needs to develop long-term pathways for the transformation of its agricultural systems. The Agricultural Transformation Pathways Initiative was discussed in a workshop where participants shared their experience of best practices and refined a work program for the coming years involving science, government, civil society and business.
  • Similarly, on the energy transition clearer analyses are needed on technology options for the technology transformation and integration at national, EU-wide, and regional levels. In parallel we must improve our understanding of the macroeconomic and social implications to ensure a just and fair energy transition.
  • Reducing inequality systems is the key to fighting poverty and implementing the principle of leaving no one behind. Therefore Europe should maintain social safeguards domestically and invest into social protection as well as promote social protection floors globally. Bottom-up multi-stakeholder cooperation based on clear and transparent framework agreements is essential for this purpose.
  • Governments should remove major barriers and create clear incentives to mobilize additional, large scale funding to support the SDGs. The Netherlands has formed a multi-stakeholder working group including representatives from government, the financial sector, and others to map opportunities, identify gaps, and pilot test new approaches and instruments. This project could serve as a model for other countries.

SDSN Newsletter - July 2021

By SDSN Secretariat • 03 Aug, 2021 •
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The ‘Fit for 55' package includes a ban on combustion engines from 2035, a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, and a Social Climate Fund among other provisions.

SDSN Canada 2021 Members Meeting Recap

By Giovanni Bruna • 29 Jul, 2021 •

SDSN Canada reconvened the network membership on June 16th, 2021 for the annual Members Meeting.

This year's meeting featured conversations on the current state of the SDGs in Canada, emerging opportunities for post-secondary institutions, networking breakout sessions, and a featured joint presentation by the Brookings Institution and Rockefeller Foundation on mobilizing campuses and communities for the SDGs using the 17 Rooms initiative. A lightning round of member initiatives was also included to highlight a portion of the SDG work happening across the network.

Recap the discussion by reading the meeting notes   or listening to the audio recordings for each session.

Meeting Highlights:

  • The SDSN Global annual Sustainable Development Report 2021  was released June 2021, tracking progress on the SDGs by country (Canada ranked 21st in the world). The report outlines the short-term impacts of COVID-19 on the SDGs and describes how the SDGs can frame the recovery.
  • The Government of Canada has released Canada’s National Strategy for the SDGs, Moving Forward Together. The strategy outlines a set of 30 actions towards the SDGs, including localizing the SDGs, supporting partnerships with Indigenous initiatives, and advancing research into the gaps in Canada's efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda.
  • The 17 Rooms initiative  is a tool for advancing SDG collaboration, community-centric conversations, and bottom-up action. There are three key principles of consideration:
    • Every SDG gets a seat at the table (a dedicated room).
    • Identify what the next step is, and not the perfect step. What are things you can do together over the next 12 to 18 months that you can implement action on the SDGs?
    • It is about conversations, not presentations. The goal is to learn from each other and create a community of practice.
    • Join the 17 Rooms-X Community of Practice to access the beta toolkit.
  • A ‘lightning round’ of presentations by members spotlighting SDG work from Colleges and Institutes Canada, the Interdisciplinary Research Center in the Operationalization of Sustainable Development (CIRODD), Vancouver Island University, the University of Saskatchewan, and the University of Waterloo.

The meeting was also a chance to invite the membership into initiatives designed to be more intentional about the network’s collective presence and impact. In this vein, the network thinks that the 17 Rooms process can be a critical resource for campus conversations on the SDGs. It also relaunched the Member Challenge , is starting the ‘SDG Teaching Community’ for faculty across the network, and is convening a small working group of interested members to talk about an enhanced governance structure for the network.

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SDSN at the 2021 High-Level Political Forum (HLPF)

By SDSN Secretariat • 20 Jul, 2021 •
SDSN and our networks are hosting a number of events alongside the UN's High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF). We are thrilled to invite you to join us at the following events, which SDSN is hosting or are organized by our partners.
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