Towards the end of 2015, 193 member countries of the United Nations (UN), had agreed on an inclusive agenda of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the ‘Global Goals’ to improve lives, in a sustainable way, for future generations. The goals if met in 2030, would transform the world we live in, making our world a better place, a place with equal opportunities where people’s lives are improved.
“Ours can be the first generation to end poverty – and the last generation to address climate change before it is too late,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had emphasised.
Articles and studies point to people being left behind, despite progression in lifting people out of poverty over the last 15 years. Pockets of society continue to be disadvantaged due to gender, age, or disability.
• 62 richest people in the world own as much wealth as 3.5 billion people (Oxfam)
• 1.3 billion people, half of the adult population in the Asia Pacific, remain financially excluded (Asian Development Bank)
• 400 million people in the Asia Pacific have some form of disability (United Nations)
• Women in Asia Pacific earn 10% to 30% less than men for equal work (Asian Development Bank)
I was honored to speak at 3 conferences in Southeast Asia recently – the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Asian Youth Innovation Forum, UNDP Regional Knowledge Exchange, and the ASEAN Conference for Social Entrepreneurship. I am heartened with the many conversations that I had meeting hundreds of people from governments, multilateral agencies, social enterprises and youths, because we all spoke to one vision – to make the world better, and to meet the SDGs..
Amidst a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA), social entrepreneurship will be essential to meeting the 17 SDGs. A social enterprise creates shared value during its course of doing business and when it goes Digital, anyone regardless of gender, age or disability can participate.
Digitalisation is the simplifier
Let me give you several examples. Consider an individual who is paralyzed from the waist down; with Digital tools, he can continue to participate in the economy directly, through services or sales online without even leaving his home. Consider an individual who lives in the rural or mountainous areas where a traditional banking transaction is a day’s effort (due to travel and waiting time). But with Digital banking and wallet, they can participate in financial services without wasting a day.
Digital has the potential to make the world better and meet the SDGs. At the regional knowledge exchange organised by UNDP, I hosted a roundtable on the topic – ‘Digital Divide to Digital Dividend’. I proposed that to be successful in the Digital Economy, a community needs to have the following to facilitate financial inclusion with Digital: Digital identity, Digital platform and a Digital wallet.
• A Digital identity that authenticates a person builds trust in transactions.
• A Digital platform allows participants to set up web shops and creates a virtual space for buyers and sellers to meet; it can also facilitate crowdfunding for social projects.
• A Digital wallet on the other hand will allow seamless flow of money from buyers and sellers.
Clearly, Digital is of essence for financial inclusion to a striving Digital Economy.
Public Private People Partnerships
Uplifting the bottom of the pyramid requires considerable amount of resources and all parties in civil society need to work together to make it happen. Public sector can institutionalise adaptive policies to help Social Enterprises, realign national budgets including incentives for the private sector and Social Enterprises to support the SDGs. In addition, the government can also look at enforcing policies that are pro-SDGs.
Private sector, meanwhile, can examine their value chain and identify areas which could be transformed to align to the SDGs, i.e. using Green energy. Companies can consume products and services from Social Enterprises that leads to a SDG outcome, i.e. catering from a Social Enterprise that will feed several children for a day for every meal ordered. Successful businesses can also provide mentorship to budding Social Enterprises to help them succeed. Finally, Social Enterprises can leverage technology to scale.
People from civil society can support the SDGs in many ways – as a volunteer, as a self-made Social Entrepreneur, as a donor on crowdsourcing platforms, as a consumer of products and services from Social Enterprises.
Orchestration is the enabler
Yet with all the good intentions, availability of technology and existing partnerships, why then do we still have a significant volume of people financially excluded from the Digital Economy?
Infrastructure is still lagging and unstable in emerging economies, rural citizens’ trust in the banks might be lacking, and there’s a lack of know-how to operate digitally. Making everything come together requires strong orchestration and partnership from the various stakeholders.
SDG Goal 17 – partnerships for the goals, aptly summarizes that public-private people partnership is essential to the success of the SDG. I espoused the need to orchestrate by going on ‘DATES’ with all stakeholders:
• Digitise engagements, transactions, processes and more
• Act for success, don’t just hope
• Transform old ways of thinking and execution
Engage with multiple stakeholders
• Scale and export successful SDG projects
Public-private-people partnerships have the potential to meet the SDGs. Well-orchestrated, governments, non-government organisations, multilateral agencies and civil society together with technology as the simplifier will accelerate sustainable development, and improve people’s lives. DATES have already started, I certainly believe that there is more hope than hype.
Eugene Ho, is SAP’s Head of Corporate Affairs (Southeast Asia).
• Views expressed are his own.