We need business to help finish the job

Set by world leaders in 2000 to provide time-bound, measurable targets to fight extreme poverty, hunger, and gender inequality, while improving the health, environment and education for all, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) provided a common vision for a better 21st Century.

Today, with just seven years to go to the MDGs 2015 deadline, and despite impressive progress on a number of fronts, the challenges we face are significant. An estimated 2.6 billion people earn less than $2 a day. More than a billion people have no access to clean water, and 1.6 billion people lack electricity.

If we are to remain on track to meet the MDGs on time, there needs to be a redoubling of efforts on the part of governments, international organisations, and civil society. And there needs to be an increased role for the private sector, given the importance of its dynamism, investments and innovation.

To this end, UNDP has been working with the private sector to present suggestions and models that show how businesses can find financial gains while furthering human development by including poor women and men in their business strategies.

Whether it is the financial services sector or agribusiness, a robust and engaged private sector can help alleviate poverty and contribute to human development by creating incomes and decent jobs, as well as by meeting the needs of poor consumers with better access to needed goods and services.

On the occasion of the upcoming High-level Event on the MDGs being convened at the UN at the end of this month, UNDP, together with a range of partners from the UN, the private sector and government, including the United Kingdom, will be organising a number of events to encourage companies further to do business in developing countries in ways which are both profitable and at the same time pro-development.

Just past the halfway point to the MDGs target date, it is essential that the force of the private sector’s vitality is brought to bear even more as part of global efforts to reach these Goals. Challenging and helping companies to find new business opportunities and develop business models that can also contribute to the achievement of the MDGs is an excellent way of helping to make that happen.