Exhibition 2020 Dubai and the United Nations Global Compact are uniting to hold a Sustainable Development Goals Business Forum during Expo’s Global Goals Week (16-22 January 2022), to join organizations and prod further activity towards a practical and comprehensive future.
Declared on 16th June at this year’s UN Global Compact Leaders Summit, the collaboration reflects a shared and urgent commitment to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and drive significant change.
Spotlighting the work of the UN Global Compact – the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative – the business forum will analyze how the worldwide community can cultivate financial flourishing for all while guaranteeing the SDGs are accomplished by the 2030 deadline. Dubai Chamber of Commerce, Official Business Integrator of Expo 2020 Dubai, will co-curate this and any remaining themed business forums all through the half-year mega event.
The collaboration will use the presence of more than 200 worldwide members at Expo 2020 to encourage a new wave of UN Global Compact membership cooperation and drive progress towards reasonable and comprehensive economic growth, in accordance with the UN Global Compact’s mission to speed up the aggregate effect of business at a worldwide scale by maintaining the Ten Principles and conveying the SDGs through responsible organizations and enabling ecosystems.
Nadia Verjee, Chief of Staff, Expo 2020 Dubai, said: “Our collaboration with the United Nations Global Compact is another milestone in Expo’s wider relationship with the UN. It builds on our shared commitment to strategic action, collaboration, and innovation to advance the SDGs and exemplifies Expo 2020’s mission to bring the world together to create a better future for people and the planet.
“Sustainable growth is at the heart of the UAE’s strategic vision and underpins Expo 2020’s entire philosophy, before, during, and after the event. It cuts across Expo in all manner of ways, from highlighting how countries are placing sustainable development at the core of their strategies, exhibitions, and programming, to actively engaging, informing, and inspiring millions of visitors to make a conscious difference in how they live their lives.”
Aiming to be one of the most sustainable, inclusive World Expos ever, Expo 2020 has adjusted its maintainability system to the SDGs, working with International Participants, commercial partners, stakeholders, and its whole supply chain to embed supportability and consideration into the actual site, the pavilion designs, and event operations.
Going beyond the environmental aspects of sustainability, Expo’s Better Together worker welfare strategy will leave a lasting legacy of change in the Middle East construction industry, while its policy of ‘one nation, one pavilion’ ensures that all countries, large or small, have an equal chance to participate and benefit from the opportunities associated with the global event. This commitment to building long-term, sustainable and equitable growth also extends to the wider Expo family, and many of Expo 2020’s Commercial Partners are already participants of the UN Global Compact.
The collaboration with the UN Global Compact also features the strength of the consolidated convening power of World Expos and the close relationship between the UAE, Expo 2020, and the UN. Similarly, as the UN Global Compact unites more than 12,000 organizations and 3,000 non-business partners, Expo 2020 will join more than 200 members, including 190 or more countries, as well as businesses, multilateral associations, and educational institutions, to shape significant organizations that can affect worldwide change in a phenomenal manner.
Dan Thomas, Chief of Communications & Strategic Events, UN Global Compact, said: “We are pleased to partner with Expo 2020 to engage more companies in driving the SDGs. We will use this opportunity to encourage more business leaders to set ambitious, measurable targets for sustainability. Tangible progress is essential for a just, inclusive, and sustainable recovery from COVID-19 and to avert the climate and inequality crises that can hold human progress back if left unaddressed.
The UN declared its Expo 2020 participation in October 2019 and has effectively collaborated on various cross-cutting thought leadership platforms. Its committed pavilion at Expo 2020, under the topic ‘We the Peoples: Shaping Our Future Together, is a chance to connect with a huge number of guests from around the world and inspire action around the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Running from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022 and coinciding with the 50-year anniversary of the founding of the UAE, Expo 2020 will unite the world, creating an open, global dialogue that looks to the future. Millions of visitors from across the globe will be welcomed to join the making of another world, as they find extraordinary developments that will have a significant, positive impact on the two individuals and planet.