Global Goals Yearbook 2018
The future of the United Nations is more uncertain than at any time before. Like his predecessors, UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has promised to reform the United Nations. Drivers are two major agreements: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Climate Accord. Both stand for a move away from statal top-down multilateralism towards new form of partnership between the public and the private sector as well as the civil society. The Global Goals Yearbook, published under the auspices of the macondo foundation, therefore covers „Partnership for the Goals“ as its 2018 main topic. Our world is truly not sustainable at this time. To make the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development a success story, we need an enormous increase in effort. This cannot happen without help from the private sector. But businesses need a reason to contribute as well as attractive partnerships that are based on win-win constellations. We have no alternative but to rethink the role that public–private partnerships can play in this effort. That is why United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is calling upon UN entities to strengthen and better align their private-sector engagement. In every change there is a new chance. The Global Goals Yearbook 2018 discusses the multiple aspects of how private sector engagement can be improved. Recommendations are, among others, to revise multilaterism, partnership models and processes and to invest more in trust, a failure culture as well as metrics and monitoring. When businesses engage in partnerships for the Goals, this is more than just signing checks. It means inserting the “do good” imperative of the SDGs into corporate culture, business cases, innovation cycles, investor relationships, and, of course, the daily management processes and (extra-)financial reporting. The Yearbook includes arguments from academic and business experts, the World Bank and the Club of Rome as well as UN entities, among them UNDP, UNSSC, UNOPS, UN JIU, and UN DESA.
The future of the United Nations is more uncertain than at any time before. Like his predecessors, UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has promised to reform the United Nations. Drivers are two major agreements: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Climate Accord. Both stand for a move away from statal top-down multilateralism towards new form of partnership between the public and the private sector as well as the civil society. The Global Goals Yearbook, published under the auspices of the macondo foundation, therefore covers „Partnership for the Goals“ as its 2018 main topic.
Our world is truly not sustainable at this time. To make the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development a success story, we need an enormous increase in effort. This cannot happen without help from the private sector. But businesses need a reason to contribute as well as attractive partnerships that are based on win-win constellations.
We have no alternative but to rethink the role that public–private partnerships can play in this effort. That is why United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is calling upon UN entities to strengthen and better align their private-sector engagement. In every change there is a new chance.
The Global Goals Yearbook 2018 discusses the multiple aspects of how private sector engagement can be improved. Recommendations are, among others, to revise multilaterism, partnership models and processes and to invest more in trust, a failure culture as well as metrics and monitoring.
When businesses engage in partnerships for the Goals, this is more than just signing checks. It means inserting the “do good” imperative of the SDGs into corporate culture, business cases, innovation cycles, investor relationships, and, of course, the daily management processes and (extra-)financial reporting.
The Yearbook includes arguments from academic and business experts, the World Bank and the Club of Rome as well as UN entities, among them UNDP, UNSSC, UNOPS, UN JIU, and UN DESA.
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FOR THE GREATEST BENEFIT<br />
TO HUMANKIND<br />
The United Nations declared October 2 to be the International Day of Non-Violence in honor<br />
of the non-violence principles of Mahatma Gandhi and to celebrate the birthday of this great<br />
legend. In tribute to the great legend, I am writing the history of the journey of Baldha Group.<br />
By Farah Mazid (Saddha), Baldha Group<br />
In the beginning of human civilization,<br />
approximately 40,000 years ago, trading<br />
began with the exchange of objects<br />
such as shells, pearls, and gold. In modern<br />
times, it has come to be known as<br />
business. New ideas have emerged and<br />
created new concepts such as start-ups<br />
and dot-coms, but the goal of these<br />
organizations is not only to make profits<br />
but also to make sure that humankind<br />
benefits.<br />
Human rights, gender rights, and other<br />
humanitarian issues have been developed<br />
to ensure that humankind is safe<br />
and corruption-free while engaging in<br />
these new forms of trade. Making money<br />
is crucial for business, but it is more<br />
important to retain ethics and integrity.<br />
How did I end up an entrepreneur while<br />
I was a graduate student in electrical<br />
engineering at Texas A&M University<br />
and working at Nokia, one of the top<br />
companies in Dallas? I remember learning<br />
about cellular networks during the<br />
weekly meetings while working there as<br />
a core systems engineer. It was fantastic.<br />
However, during a meeting I found myself<br />
lost and asking: Is this really something<br />
I want? I had an opportunity to<br />
move to Bangladesh for a project at the<br />
“<br />
The best<br />
way to<br />
find<br />
yourself<br />
is to lose<br />
yourself<br />
in the<br />
service of<br />
the others.<br />
Mahatma Gandhi<br />
Nokia office there. Soon I realized: This<br />
is it. Entrepreneurship is in my blood<br />
and I have to build my own company.<br />
That was my dream. However, my parents<br />
were in the services industry and<br />
they never wanted me to quit my good<br />
corporate job and start a business. They<br />
also warned me that it would be extremely<br />
difficult because business in<br />
Bangladesh is dominated by men. There<br />
are a few female entrepreneurs, but they<br />
benefited from their family names or<br />
spouses. I was determined that no matter<br />
how many challenges I faced, I would<br />
not quit and would be strong enough<br />
to fulfill my dreams.<br />
I founded Baldha Group in memory of<br />
my favorite 100-year-old garden, “Baldha,”<br />
which was built by King Narendra<br />
Narayan Rai Chowdhury. With very little<br />
capital, my team and I started our<br />
new venture Baldha Apparel Ltd. Our<br />
first order was silk pajama sets and our<br />
delivery deadline was in two months.<br />
Obviously, we were very nervous. Within<br />
a short time, we had to produce quality<br />
garments and ship them on time. Our<br />
supplier was very helpful and even managed<br />
to provide an extra generator when<br />
the electricity failed. My team, myself,<br />
90<br />
<strong>Global</strong> <strong>Goals</strong> <strong>Yearbook</strong> <strong>2018</strong>
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