Introduction

The UNDP and Business Mauritius have recently joined forces for an unprecedented collaboration aimed at enhancing the capacity of Mauritian businesses to align their operations with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

A joint training event, “The SDG Impact Standards for Enterprises” running from February 6 to 8, 2024, was one of the very first trainings in Africa reaching around 50 enterprises first in Mauritius and next in The Seychelles.[2] Other previous trainings have been conducted in South Africa (375 enterprises throughout 2023) and Nigeria (12 enterprises trained 28-30 October in 2023).[3] Hence, to scale up the roll-out and adoption of the SDG Impact Standards to many more businesses UNDP has partnered with Social Value International (SVI) to deliver the SDG Impact Standards Train-the-Trainer Course.

Vision

The aim is to achieve the SDGs at the heart of private value creation and to put the world on a more sustainable and equitable path. To achieve this vision we need a transformational shift in mindset and management decision-making.

Sustainability Frameworks

Table 1: Sustainability frameworks: Do different things & target different users

On the X-axis of table 1 all the different existing sustainability frameworks are displayed including Management / decision making standards & frameworks. The Y-axis illustrates that some of these sustainability frameworks are more focused on the Social & Environmental (S&E) returns, whereas others are more focused on the financial returns.

The characteristics of The SDG Impact Standards

For example, when it comes to Management / Decisions standards & frameworks: There are a number of frameworks focusing on S&E returns such as the forward looking SDG Impact Standards and ISO, whereas the ESG risk integration frameworks has a financial return focus. In fact, The SDG Standards are more aligned with the ISO – management practice standards but not the reporting standards. This is done to be resilient and competitive. Consequently, SDG Impact is building a partnerships with ISO with its access to a market of 2-3 Mn companies as well as with GRI.

Figure 1: Build on and complement existing leading initiatives

The core idea is not to replicate nor duplicate the good work of others. This means that the SDG Impact Standards have really been designed as an overarching decision-making framework that helps organizations look at what is available through the principles, resources, tools and frameworks that already exist and make choices between them.

In the Standards themselves, the focus is from end-to-end through 12 SDG Impact Actions, that is, from Strategy, through Management, through Transparency and Governance practices by trying to focus in on the areas that current High-Level Principles were not focusing on so much.

It should be emphasized that this is not a prescription about the tools and the reporting frameworks that the users of the standards use.

On the contrary what it is doing is to lay out a decision-making framework to help both Sustainable Businesses and Impact Private Equity Funds make the right decisions about what works best for them in their context. The Standards guide organizations to reimagine innovative business models and involve them in decision-making. This is why adopting The Standards has become a prerequisite to pitch at the new Impact Lions’ Den series launched last month, where 10 company owners from across Africa were trained by one of the accredited trainer.

SDG Impact Education and Training

To support this adoption of the SDG Impact Standards, SDG Impact has developed education and training courses to strengthen sustainability and impact management capability across the market.

2^nd Cohort of SDG Impact Standards Accredited Trainers, SVI Master Trainer & UNDP[4]

Note: July 2023, University of Cape Town Business School, South Africa.

The SDG Impact Standards Train-the-Trainer Course

Essential preparation is required ahead of the Train the Trainer course. Firstly, the candidates need to complete the UNDP-DUKE course on Impact Measurement and Management (IMM) for the SDGs. Secondly, the candidates must as a minimum read the SDG Impact Standards: Enterprises; the About the Standards document; review the 12 Enterprise Actions; and take a look at the self-assessment tool for Enterprises.

The training is organized around different learning objectives and guiding questions which are being responded to over 3 full days.

The rolling out of the SDG Standards in Africa

Originally the stated aim was to have – 100 Accredited trainers globally. However, at the end of the 2023 there was only about 50 trainers. In October 2022 the first cohort of candidate trainers in Africa were trained, which eventually produced the first 5 accredited trainers in Africa. Then in July 2023 a second cohort of 20 candidate trainers were trained which took place in Cape Town, South Africa just ahead of the Africa Impact Summit.[5] This has currently increased to a yet small number to 15 accredited trainers with a license given the low success rate in passing the assessment.

How trainers are using the standards

The latest (2023) GIIN Global IMM survey results show take-up of the SDG Impact Standards amongst impact investors - with 19% of respondents (or 58 of the 308) now using the SDG Impact Standards to guide their impact strategy.

The major challenge for the trainers will be “How to convince the potential clients to adopt these Standards by making them realise that sustainability makes sense for their business.” How to overcome this challenge is currently being explored through an Applied Research Project (ARP) at the Graduate Institute Geneva commissioned by 4IP Group LLC. One of the solutions which this ARP is exploring is the optimal pricing mechanisms for the payment by a SME Founder, since the willingness and/or ability to pay has proven to be one of the biggest binding constraints.

Insights from training provided

The proposed Training for aspiring Sustainable Businesses is designed as follows: A 3 consecutive days compact in-depth training with 300 slides for teams within companies that are responsible for implementing The SDG Standards. This is considered a lot and could perhaps be spread over several weeks given high opportunity costs. Other issues include:

• The IMM parts are challenging for those trainees not well acquainted with the methodologies.
• The concepts presented and discussed are many and at times participants have their own views based on their experiences as practitioners.
• In order to get the SDG Standards across to decision-makers it is important to actually get them to attend the training sessions, which some trainers haven’t managed yet. Consequently, the aspiration is that they become intrapreneurs championing The Standards inside their organizations.

Call to Action and Why The SDG Impact Standards matter

It is believed that by achieving the SDGs we will eventually create a world that is more sustainable, equitable, and prosperous. Achieving the SDGs by adopting The SDG Impact Standards is inter alia estimated to be:

•  Creating 380,000,000 jobs of which 90% are in developing countries.
•  Providing more than $12 trillion worth of market opportunities.
•  Providing 2-3x more growth compared to the average projected GDP growth over the next 10-15 years.

Ms Amanda Serumaga, UNDP Resident Representative in Mauritius, highlighted that “[…] The SDG Impact Standards serve as a critical framework for businesses to align operations with sustainable development objectives […]."

Adejoke Lasisi, the CEO of Planet 3R in Nigeria commented “The SDG Impact Standards training was, thus, very useful for us, to better articulate who those stakeholders are, and what our actual contribution is to their wellbeing”.

[1] Acknowledgement: I would like to thank all 14 accredited trainers in Africa for their feedback and comments.

[2] Source: SDG Impact Standards Training: UNDP partners with Business Mauritius for sustainable development | United Nations Development Programme

[3] Source: Commitment to excellence in Impact Measurement and Management to Elevate SDG-Focused Enterprises in Nigeria | United Nations Development Programme (undp.org)

[4] SDG Impact | SDG Impact Standards Trainers (undp.org)

[5] See my article A Decade-long Journey to the Africa Impact Summit | Impact Entrepreneur