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In recognition of the importance of private sector engagement in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, several Nepali businesses have recently begun stepping up to the plate with a number of innovative partnerships and initiatives.
In September 2015, when UN member states, including Nepal, adopted the Sustainable Development Goals—a universal call to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that everyone enjoys peace and prosperity—the private sector was named among the key partners to take this ambitious agenda forward. Given its potential to mobilize resources, technology and innovation, active participation of private sector entities was deemed crucial to aiding and accelerating the achievement of the 17 Global Goals by 2030. Already, around the world, we’re seeing many inspirational instances of how the involvement of businesses has helped countries progress on the SDGs. And recently, despite being relatively small in size, the Nepali private sector has also begun stepping up to the plate in this regard.
When Yeti Airlines, one of the country’s leading airliners, unveiled its aircraft freshly branded with the SDGs icons in September 2017—an initiative that was part of a broader partnership with the United Nations in Nepal—the event made headlines in Nepal and beyond, with the company receiving praise for demonstrating its commitment to the Global Goals. The move was significant for a number of reasons: not only was it geared to raise awareness about the SDGs among Yeti’s own customers and the public, but it also served to sensitize the private sector in Nepal about the role they could play to help promote and achieve the targets of the 2030 Agenda. Indeed, after Yeti took the Global Goals skyward in such a dramatic fashion, other private sector players were inspired to follow a similar path, with several joining hands with the UN and UNDP as partners in the SDGs.
“We were the first to take the leap, and we’re happy to see others doing the same today,” says Prabina KC, senior manager of sales and marketing at Yeti. “We entered into the partnership with the UN with the objective of providing visibility to the SDGs in the country, and we were able to achieve what we set out to do to a large extent.”
As part of the same broader agreement with the UN, the airliner also branded its shuttle buses and boarding passes with SDG iconography, and included a link on its website for voluntary donations to UNDP for post-earthquake reconstruction work. Yeti also distributes leaflets and carries out regular social media campaigns related to the Global Goals.
Aside from awareness raising through this sort of action-oriented messaging on the SDGs, the company is also trying to incorporate the spirit and principles of Agenda 2030 in its day-to-day operations, according to KC. “We have, for instance, initiated the process to transform the company into a carbon-neutral airline,” she says. “We have examined the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from air travel, vehicle use and facility operation in the company, and established a carbon baseline that we will use to monitor progress on the path to reducing and offsetting emissions and becoming carbon neutral.” Building on this, the airline plans to eventually move towards the ultimate goal of climate neutrality, which would encompass even wider areas of operation, including water use and waste management.
Yeti’s initiatives go a long way in illustrating the potential reach and impact of private sector engagement with the SDGs. “One of the key ways in which the SDGs differ from the previous Millennium Development Goals or MDGs is in the recognition of the role of private sector entities,” says Anil Shan, veteran banker and current CEO of Nabil Bank. “The MDGs relied almost entirely on governments, but the SDGs acknowledge that it is virtually impossible to attain these targets without leveraging private capital.”
This is backed by the government’s own findings. According to ‘Sustainable Development Goals—Status and Roadmap: 2016-2030’, a report published by the National Planning Commission last year, Nepal will have to spend Rs. 1.77 trillion on an annual basis until 2030 in order to achieve the SDGs, a sum that far surpasses the government’s yearly federal budget. Without the private sector’s involvement, then, the country’s prospects of reaching the Global Goals are slim to none.
Shah, who is currently in consultation with UNDP to sign a memorandum of understanding to align the bank’s activities with the SDGs, is planning to go through the Nabil Foundation, in which one percent of the bank’s annual profit is deposited every year. “However, writing a cheque, on its own, is hardly enough…the SDGs are about more than just basic philanthropy,” Shah says. “It’s important to internalize the goals in the way we conduct regular business—the SDGs should be part of the private sector’s DNA.”
In order to make the private sector’s participation as effective as possible, Shah says the government, donor agencies and other development partners have an important role to play as facilitators for such initiatives. “Many private sector actors are eager to contribute, but there needs to be the right kind of environment to take that step,” says Shah.
Hari Bhakta Sharma, President, Confederation of Nepalese Industries
The private sector has a key role to play in attaining a majority of the goals. However, the private sector itself must be strong enough to play this role. The government must prepare appropriate legal and physical infrastructure where the private sector flourishes. It should also encourage the private sector to invest in areas of comparative advantage in order to increase employment opportunities.
Bhawani Rana, President, Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industries
The private sector can contribute to eliminating poverty by providing employment to large numbers of the population. In the context of Nepal, thousands of youths are leaving the country each day seeking employment opportunities abroad while the industries within Nepal are facing difficulty in attracting skilled employees. We are working with the government to launch youth training programs to mitigate this problem. FNCCI is also partnering with UNDP for Goals 8 and 9, which are related to economic growth, innovation and employment generation.
