With nearly 14,000 participants registered for the Second World Summit for Social DevelopmentCurrently underway in Doha, the gathering has become a meeting place for governments, global organizations and community voices working to shape what a more just future could look like.
UN News East on the ground in Dohafollowing two major events organized on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Summit: one led by businesses, the other by civil society.
Business Forum: No charity – a smart investment
The Private Sector Forum, co-hosted by the International Organization of Employers, the United Nations Global Compact and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), focused on how businesses can support inclusive growth while adapting to technological developments, climate pressures and changing labor markets.
Opening of the event, UN President of the General Assembly Annalena Baerbock sharp at the narrowed window to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) – and the financing needed to get there.
“With the annual financing gap for the SDGs currently standing at US$4 trillion, one of the biggest obstacles we face is financing,” she said. “But we know, and you know, that money as such is not the problem. The question is rather how and where this money is invested.»
She noted that companies with strong environmental, social and governance performance “report 10 percent higher operating margins and 20 percent lower cost of capital.”
“Simply put: they are more profitable,” she said.
“We are not asking the private sector to act out of charity. Inclusive economic models strengthen societies and [boost] market confidence…and help create the very environment in which businesses can grow and thrive.
Later, the Director General of the International Labor Organization (ILO) Gilbert Houngbo closed the Forum with a call for cooperation, emphasizing that “no country or company can tackle today’s challenges alone» and that “universal and lasting peace can only be established on the basis of social justice”.
Participants at the Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC) participating in the second World Summit for Social Development.
Civil society forum: people power in action
A few rooms away, the Civil Society Forum opened with stories of community solutions already transforming lives – from Moroccan women’s cooperatives producing argan oil to Cameroon’s “Solar Mamas” installing solar panels in rural villages.
“We see how far the global social vision has come,” said the Deputy Secretary-General. Amina Mohamedrecognizing grassroots groups for holding governments accountable and ensuring that social justice and inclusion “weren’t just words on paper.”
“You are proof that social development is important and always will be, because you make it happen every day in communities and in people’s lives.“, she told the participants. “You are our co-pilots.”
The Forum ends on Thursday (just like the Summit), with discussions structured around ten themes drawn from the Copenhagen Declaration of 1995 – all focused on how to ensure that policies translate into real improvements in everyday life.
