The RELX SDG Resource Centre supports the dissemination of leading-edge content relevant to the SDGs, and is working with partners to highlight their contributions.
The United Nations Global Compact is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, and to take action in support of UN goals and issues embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals. The UN Global Compact is a leadership platform for the development, implementation and disclosure of responsible corporate practices. Launched in 2000, it is the largest corporate sustainability initiative in the world, with more than 9,000 companies and 3,000 non-business signatories based in over 160 countries, and more than 70 Local Networks.
RELX Group has been a signatory to the UN Global Compact since 2004 and its SDG Resource Centre will play an important role in the dissemination of business-driven knowledge, tools & resources, and expertise to advance the SDGs.
Making Global Goals Local Business
The Global Alliance is a coordinating platform for UN Member States, private sector, civil society, and international entities to work together to promote peaceful, just, and inclusive societies. Led by 7 Member States, 3 private sector entities, 3 civil society organisations, and co-facilitated by UNDP, UNESCO, and UNODC in consultation with partners across the UN system, the Alliance brings UN Member States the assistance they need to report meaningfully on progress towards peaceful, just, and inclusive societies—and its links to the entire 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The Global Alliance focuses on reporting as a mechanism to encourage and enable action to advance peace, justice and inclusion. Effective reporting engages actors from throughout government and the rest of society in planning, monitoring and review efforts. These processes generate the information and institutional connections needed to develop and implement effective initiatives for progress on the SDGs. They also generate the understanding, improved relationships and mutual accountability—between government entities, between communities, and between the state and civil society—that is the driver of peace and progress. In this way, the Global Alliance is pioneering a new form of development: one in which Member States are supported by other Member States, private sector, civil society, academic, development, media and other institutions in order to meet their commitments under the 2030 Agenda. Moving beyond us/them dichotomies, the Global Alliance brings together Governments of the global ‘North’ and ‘South’, state and civil society institutions, development actors, think tanks and others as partners in a shared challenge: promoting peaceful, just, and inclusive societies.
To this end, the Global Alliance provides these services:
- Direct support to Member States, including Angola, Malawi, Uganda, and Kyrgyzstan.
- Supporting peer-learning, experience sharing, and informal networking: Several regional workshops are planned throughout 2017: Latin America (June), Europe (Sept), Middle East (October).
- Knowledge development: To support the development of ‘lessons learned’ resources, the Global Alliance works in partnership with other entities, in order to draw upon the lessons of this work, and enhance the impact of partner agencies’ efforts. For example, the Global Alliance is supporting the communication, codification and dissemination of work undertaken as part of the SDG16 National Monitoring Pilot processes being conducted in Mexico, Uruguay, El Salvador, Tunisia, Indonesia, South Africa, Georgia (with the support of UNDP and in partnership with the Open Governance Partnership and the Community of Democracies, with financial support from USAID). The Global Alliance is also providing this support to the Partners for Review (P4R) initiative facilitated by the Germany Government.
LexisNexis Legal & Professional is one of the three private sector companies on the steering committee and through its parent company, RELX Group, is providing tools and resources to advance all of these efforts.
SDG16 National Monitoring Pilots Flyer
The Business and Sustainable Development Commission (BSDC) is a two-year initiative launched in 2016, focused on inspiring and mobilizing business leaders to align their companies with the Global Goals. With the engagement of 37 Commissioners from business, finance, civil society, labour, and international organisations, it is now bringing together diverse stakeholders to advance blended financing and map sector progress toward the SDGs and making the regional business case for Global Goals opportunities. It calls on business leaders to share what they are doing in their own companies and to learn about further action they can take by joining the commission at businesscommission.org/join.
