As governments and stakeholders gather for the third annual United Nations Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) for the SDGs in New York June 5-6, USCIB organized a timely breakfast roundtable on the margins of the forum titled, “Together for Impact: Business Innovation for the SDGs” earlier this morning. USCIB partnered with the U.S. Department of State and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to create a productive dialogue between USCIB member companies and relevant UN missions and agencies.
The roundtable – held at Pfizer’s Headquarters in New York – brought together UN Missions, UN Agencies, and USCIB Member companies to discuss opportunities to partner and scale up the deployment of innovation to deliver progress on the SDGs. Representatives of companies, governments and the UN system began a practical dialogue on operationalizing private sector innovations through conducive enabling regulatory frameworks and inclusive international cooperation.
Monsanto, Ferrero, Pfizer, Novozymes, LexisNexis and CropLife International presented examples of how companies are working with other stakeholders to advance innovative technologies and knowledge-sharing. Japanese Ambassador and Co-Chair of the STI Forum Toshiya Hoshino gave a government and UN perspective, as did Judith Arrieta, on behalf of Ambassador Juan Sandoval Mendiolea of Mexico, co-chair of STI Forum. Also attending the meeting were the co-chairs and several members of the UN “10 Member Advisory Group” to the STI Forum, including Vaughan Turekian of the National Academy of Science.
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Kelley Currie opened the meeting, highlighting the importance of bringing together the private sector, which is increasingly embracing and operationalizing SDG-related innovations – in terms of products, services, ways of producing, and the very means of cooperation itself – and the UN system. In her keynote speech, she stated that, “there are such good intentions on all sides, and a great deal of achievement and potential to offer. Three years after 2015, Addis and New York and Paris, those who understand the imperative of stepped up deployment of solutions do need to find ways to advance those opportunities, to bridge what appear to be missed opportunities and take them forward for shared impact and benefit. Business too has to do more to encourage such a “skin in the game” working relationships, including through public-private partnerships.”
USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson remarked, “dissemination and deployment of technologies and know-how for the widest possible societal benefits are imperatives that can only be advanced by working together with the US business community. That is why USCIB called this meeting, for systems thinking and more importantly systems doing, and to cultivate systemic collaboration and knowledge-sharing.”
USCIB will continue to work with its membership and with governments to ensure that business views and contributions to innovation in its products, initiatives and implementation are heard, welcomed, and taken into account within the international community working cooperatives on sustainable development.
