WHAT: United Nations Global Compact Leaders Summit 2023
WHEN: 19 September 2023
WHERE: Nest Climate Campus, Javits Center North
Gary White, CEO and Co-founder of water.org and WaterEquity and Matt Damon, Co-founder of water.org, will join Executive Director and CEO of the UN Global Compact, Sanda Ojiambo, CEOs of major corporations and other leaders from the United Nations, governments, civil society and UN Global Compact Local Networks to take stock of business progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit 2023.
Currently only 15 percent of the Sustainable Development Goal targets are on track, progress on 48 percent is weak and insufficient and progress has stalled or gone into reverse on 37 percent of the SDGs.
The converging crises of climate change, a deadly global pandemic, worsening social and economic inequality, unchecked corruption and the devastating consequences of the war in Ukraine have caused unprecedented disruption and global transformation.
Alongside the UN General Assembly High-Level Week, this year’s UN Global Compact Leaders Summit will address business leadership during converging crises, the critical role of a principles-based approach, global trends, and tools and partnerships needed to fully achieve the 2030 Agenda.
Highlights of the day’s agenda include a plenary session hosted by Gary White, CEO and Co-founder of water.org and WaterEquity and Matt Damon, Co-founder of water.org, looking at how water is one of best investments the world can make to achieve global gender equality, create climate change resilience, and help end the cycle of poverty.
The UN Global Compact will also launch, Forward Faster, a new initiative to accelerate private sector action at the pace and scale needed to deliver on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and meet the 2030 Agenda.
Members of the UN Global Compact CFO Coalition for the SDGs will look at the central role Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) play in ensuring that private capital flows to the SDGs and that companies make the necessary investments for the sustainability transition and can raise the necessary capital.
The UN Global Compact will also reveal its twelve new SDG Pioneers — business leaders who are doing an exceptional job to advance the SDGs through the implementation of the Ten Principles of UN Global Compact on human rights, environment, labour and anti-corruption.
More than two dozen CEOs and business leaders will speak including Flora Mutahi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Melvin Marsh International Ltd; Bolaji Balogun, Chief Executive Officer, Chapel Hill Denham; Sandra Wu, Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Kokusai Kogyo; Eunice Heath, SVP and Chief Sustainability Officer, CRH plc; Gonzalo Saenz De Miera, Global Director of Climate Change and Alliance, Iberdrola; Ayisha Siddiqa, Member of the Secretary-General’s Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change, Polluters Out; Akiko Nakamura, Vice President of Sustainability Strategy Acceleration Department, Shiseido; Christian Stracke, Managing Director, President, and Global Head of the Credit Research Group, PIMCO; Dilip Pal, Chief Finance Officer, Safaricom; Juergen Esser, Deputy CEO and CFO, DANONE; Maria Carrasco, CFO, FCC Construcción; Michael Okoroafor, Chief Sustainability Officer, McCormick & Company; Caroline Rees, President and Co-Founder, Shift; Alexandra Palt, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer & CEO of The Fondation L’Oréal, L’Oréal; Rebecca Marmot, Chief Sustainability Officer, Unilever; Sami Lundgren, Vice President, Responsibility, UPM; Daan Wensing, CEO and Chair of the Executive Board, IDH; Elisa Roberts, Global Water Lead, Microsoft; Richard Mattison, Vice Chair of S&P Global Sustainable1 and Chief Executive Officer of S&P Global Sustainability1; Eva Zabey, CEO, Business for Nature; Claire Lund, Vice President for Environmental Sustainability, GSK; Patrick Chalhoub, Group President, Chalhoub Group; Yusuf Omar, CEO & Co-Founder, Seen.TV; Thorsten Pinkepank, Director Corporate Sustainability Relations, BASF; Lucita Jasmin, Director for Sustainability & External Affairs, APRIL Group; Ramon Guemez, CFO, BMW; Delia Ferreira, Chair, Transparency International; Brigitte Strobel-Shaw, Chief of the Corruption and Economic Crime Branch, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; Richard Nephew, Coordinator on Global Anti-Corruption, Department of State; Faatiha Aayat, Child Rights Activist and Climate Campaigner, CEO, CHIL&D; Solange Ribeiro, Vice-Chair, UN Global Compact and Deputy CEO of Neoenergia and Yasmina Benslimane, Activist, Consultant and Women's Empowerment Coach, Politics4Her.
Media Accreditation and inquiries:
For the full programme and to register to attend please visit: https://unglobalcompact.swoogo.com/Press
For interview requests please contact Alex Gee <gee@unglobalcompact.org>
