New Delhi, India; 26 & 27 September 2017

BCtA was invited to speak on partnerships at the CSI 11th annual forum in New Delhi, India last September. The event focused on how, through sharing knowledge and experience, the private sector can capture and build on the opportunities offered by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and understand the risks of inaction.

The annual CSI Forum is the most important sustainability event for the cement industry. By rotating location in different parts of the world every year in the past decade, the CSI Forum allows the World Business Council for Sustainable Development members to interact with partners and key stakeholders and also gives voice to local and regional participants. With about 100 participants from India and overseas, the event is a major platform to get together and discuss issues the sector faces, notably how the sector can grow together with its partners through the SDGs.
Through open and constructive debates, breakout sessions examined and evaluated the new framework set up by the SDGs in tackling the sustainability challenges that businesses and societies must face together. Addressing inequalities, using resources in an efficient manner, integrating SDGs into reporting and frameworks for business, role of multi-stakeholder partnerships in achieving the SDGs were among the topics explored by the participants.

Our Knowledge and Partnerships lead, Nazila Vali, was invited to showcase some of the successful partnerships BCtA initiated during the ‘’tapping into the resources of partnerships’’ session. Since its creation in 2008, BCtA has been behind the establishment of several promising partnerships between the private sector and development institution; for instance, between Banka Bioloo, a woman-led company that provides environmentally friendly and sustainable solutions for sanitation across India and the World Bank in 2015.

BCtA also initiated some important investment partnerships; one the most recent example of BCtA-facilitated investment partnerships is between PG Impact Investments, a Swiss private investment fund that seek investment solutions that offer financial returns, while also helping to address pressing social or environmental challenges, and five BCtA social enterprises including Direct Fresh (Bangladesh), Biomass (Sri Lanka), Glovax (Philippines), Pamoja Cleantech (Uganda) and Ilumexico (Mexico).

Nazila also shared some essential principles for successful collaboration for the SDGs such as the need to identify clear reasons for collaboration and the need to remain flexible in defining success. Her presentation as well as the other forum presentations can be accessed here.

More info on the 2017 CSI forum here.