We invite you to join us at a working session with leading companies, industry bodies, development institutions, NGOs, and experts.
For-Benefit Value Chains:
Leveraging Corporate Purchasing Power to Advance the SDGs
Register
Tuesday,
September 17, 2019
09.00 to 12.00
Networking lunch, 12.00 to 13.00
The British Academy
10-11 Carlton House Terrace
London SW1Y 5AH
United Kingdom
About This Event
As you know, at the current trajectory the world will fall very short of meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Bold ambition and speedy response are required to mobilize the trillions in private sector investment that is needed.
With support from the UK Department for International Development, (DFID) and in collaboration with Philips, Unilever, CARE, the British Academy's Future of the Corporation programme, and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Fourth Sector Group is organizing a multi-stakeholder alliance to leverage the potential of global value chains to deliver on the SDGs.
For-Benefit Enterprises and the SDGs
Many of today’s global challenges are largely downstream consequences of outmoded economic systems and business models that incentivize short-term financial gain over long-term sustainable value creation. Responding to the scale, urgency and complexity of these challenges demands that we fundamentally rethink business-as-usual. For-benefit enterprises are a promising pathway for such a transformation.
For-benefit enterprises are neither for-profit nor non-profit; they are hybrid organizations whose primary purpose is delivering social and environmental benefit, alongside commercial gains. For-benefits constitute a fourth sector of the economy which has been emerging at the intersection of the private, public, and nonprofit sectors for decades. Scaling this sector by trillions is critical to achieving the 2030 Agenda.
As a streamlined, systemic strategy for contributing to the SDGs, global companies can leverage their buying power to create demand for for-benefits in their value chains by instituting a procurement preference for them. This will incentivize new for-benefit entrants and conversions of existing players, thus improving social and environmental outcomes throughout value chains and delivering across all the SDGs. To help meet this demand, government, investors and other actors can in turn help to develop the capacity and broader enabling environment required for for-benefit transformation of value chains.
“A surge of “for-benefit” companies at the intersection of the traditional private, public and non-profit sectors will be critical in delivering on the SDGs by 2030.”
- World Economic Forum
Session Focus
This session builds on a series of consultations and workshops held at the World Economic Forum and the Bellagio Center over the past year. It will bring together corporate executives and sustainability and supply chain leaders with experts from finance, civil society, and other sectors to explore a range of critical questions, and to align on a roadmap towards a significant commitment at Davos 2020.
We will examine how a for-benefit procurement preference not only builds on and strengthens initiatives in supplier diversity and sustainable sourcing (certifications, human rights standards, etc.), but can also go beyond by supporting an enabling environment for for-benefits along the supply chain. By incentivizing new for-benefit entrants and conversions of existing players to for-benefit, companies can accelerate impact toward the SDGs, and their own sustainable and responsible sourcing goals, by improving social and environmental outcomes across the board. Key areas of discussion:
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Procurement systems: what needs to change to advance the SDGs?
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What sectors / industries are ripe for procurement practice reforms that incentivize for-benefit business models?
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What is the business case, for purchasers as well as suppliers?
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How can governments, investors and other actors support for-benefit procurement practices?
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What are the short, medium, and long term pathways for action and collaboration?
Chairs
Rebecca Holliday
Managing Partner, CARE Consulting
Dave Ingram
Chief Procurement Officer, Unilever
Colin Mayer
Peter Moores Professor of Management Studies Said Business School, University of Oxford, Fellow of the British Academy. and Lead Academic of the British Academy Future of the Corporation Programme
Robert Metzke
Chief of Staff & Global Head of Sustainability, Innovation and Strategy, Philips
Heerad Sabeti
CEO, Fourth Sector Group
We very much hope you can join us!
Please note, attendence is by invitation only. Space is limited and registration is subject to capacity.
Full agenda and participant list to follow upon registration.
For questions, contact Francesca Mondello at f.mondello@fourthsector.org.
