Fostering sustainable energy is a priority for the United Nations, but does the world body give civil society and the private sector enough of a say in the process?
Not yet, according to Kandeh K. Yumkella, U.N. undersecretary-general and head of Sustainable Energy for All, an initiative that hopes to create a partnership involving governments, business and civil society to make universal access to sustainable energy sources a reality by 2030.
“We all say we want public-private partnerships, but in the [U.N.] Charter today, the private sector cannot be in a decision-making role,” Yumkella said Thursday during a panel discussion at the Frontiers in Development Forum organized by the U.S. Agency for International Development in Washington, D.C.
About the author
Jeff Tyson@jtyson21
Jeff is a former global development reporter for Devex. Based in Washington, D.C., he covers multilateral affairs, U.S. aid, and international development trends. He has worked with human rights organizations in both Senegal and the U.S., and prior to joining Devex worked as a production assistant at National Public Radio. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in international relations and French from the University of Rochester.
