More than 400 specialists from various sectors and regions across Lebanon gathered on October 10 to share their 2030 vision of a far more sustainable and developed Lebanon at the Multi-Stakeholder SDG Forum held at the American University of Beirut (AUB).
Through a day-long series of workshops at AUB’s Suliman S. Olayan School of Business, the forum aimed to open up discussions around on-going work and action plans towards implementing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda.
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The UN 2030 Agenda builds on the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) launched 17 years ago and was adopted by all 193 member states in September 2015. The new 2030 Agenda consists of 17 SDGs and 169 targets which lay out the recommended path for the next 15 years in ending extreme poverty, fighting inequality and injustice, and protecting our planet.
The 2030 Agenda offers an opportunity for Lebanon to elevate to a higher level of prosperity and sustainability while championing a global agenda. However, success in this regard will ideally depend on rallying the necessary awareness, capacity building, and partnerships amongst businesses, government, academia, and civil society organizations in the pursuit of sustainable development. For this purpose, the UN Global Compact (UNGC) stepped in to facilitate this cross-sector engagement necessary to advance the agenda further.
The UN Global Compact (UNGC) is a global leadership platform for the development and implementation of responsible and sustainable corporate policies and practices. Endorsed by chief executives around the globe, it seeks to align business operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.
In addition to organizing the Multi-Stakeholder SDG Forum, GCN-Lebanon engages its 135+ participants through a diligent annual activity plan tackling four very relevant areas namely human rights, anti-corruption, education and environment.
GCNL is also working to engage national authorities in the achievement of the 2030 Agenda. So far the network has signed Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with the Ministry of Economy and Trade (MoET), the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (OMSWA), the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) and the Chamber of Commerce to establish official partnerships and advance the ministries’ involvements and commitments to the 17 SDGs which will in turn be in favor of Lebanon as a nation.
Today, there is growing momentum for the GCNL which remains committed to advancing sustainability practices nationwide, a step indeed necessary to make Lebanon rise again.
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