During the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals in New York last year, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon highlighted in a speech the growing importance of one particular development stakeholder in pushing the long-awaited 17 goals and 169 targets of the framework further: the private sector.
And Ban is intent on having companies, firms and corporations play a more central role in global development.
Over the past few years, there has been much discussion about the need for increased development financing, in addition to identifying more diverse and innovative ways to bankroll the world's various development programs, including the newly minted SDGs. The Global Goals alone — as the world's most comprehensive development blueprint for development efforts over the next 15 years — will likely require trillions of dollars in investments.