Pdf унших - How Mongolian companies contribute to implementing the Sustainable Development Goals

All around the world, companies are increasingly expected to strongly contribute to solving the most pressing social and environmental issues on local, regional, national, and even international level. Acc. to the 2018 global Edelman Trust Barometer, 64% of people worldwide are of the opinion that company CEOs should take the lead on change regarding pressing issues rather than waiting for governments to impose it.1 Correspondingly, a growing number of business leaders believe that sustainability provides a strong opportunity to direct their companies’ core business activities towards sustainable value creation which allows businesses to keep their license to operate while at the same time serving society’s needs. Business that contributes to achieving environmental, social and economic prosperity is just what is behind the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are generally seen as a win-win situation: They provide stakeholders with a new logic and help translating global needs and ambitions into business solutions. These business solutions will contribute to achieving progress on the SDGs, and at the same time enable companies to better manage their risks, build business perspectives in growth markets and sustain their business model in the long-run.2 At the same time, although the process of implementing the 17 SDGs – which are also known as the Global Goals and which are integral part of the Agenda 2030 – is already in its’ third year after its’ adoption in 2015, many companies, including global leaders, still struggle estimating which opportunities are exactly linked to their own business models and how a single company should get started on implementing the SDGs. In Mongolia, cooperation between business and politics on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals is still developing. Acc. to the results of a survey the Mongolian Corporate Governance Development Center (CGDC) conducted in 2017, there is an understanding that the public and the private sector need to step up efforts to achieve better collaboration, as these two stakeholder groups are considered to be equally important and responsible for achieving progress on the SDGs.3 Against this background, CGDC with support of Konrad Adenauer Foundation (Germany) has established the “Sustainability Dialogue Mongolia” (sdm). As a first step, sdm in 2018 brought together leading Mongolian companies from different sectors and industries to discuss how business can contribute to the SDGs. As a result, in September 2018, companies decided to give the Mongolian development a new momentum by adopting a common understanding on the importance of sustainable development and the role companies should play for achieving the SDGs. Over the past weeks, the so called “Common Position” has been signed by the CEOs of leading Mongolian companies and in 2019, the initiative will broaden its’ scope to the wider business community, including SMEs, and reach out to public institutions. In brief, the “Common Position” serves two main purposes: It outlines a shared understanding on the commitment of Mongolian companies to a sustainable future for Mongolia’s society. And equally important, it is an offer to politics, administration, international institutions, NGOs, the media and the general population to intensify the much-needed collaboration on how to achieve SDGs implementation in Mongolia. Therefore, the “Common Position” also serves as the starting point for the next level of Sustainability Dialogue Mongolia.