The Business and Industry Major Group (B&I MG) appreciates this opportunity to share its vision of priorities and next steps relating to the UN HLPF in 2020 and beyond.

As the UN Decade of Action and Delivery faces the continuing fall-out of the COVID19 pandemic, business as usual is now obsolete for the private sector, as well as for the international community. It is in the DNA of business to turn challenges into opportunities and to innovate and develop practical and realistic solutions for the problems we face, and B&I MG members are ready to join forces with governments and the multilateral community to respond forcefully to this crisis while maintaining and increasing momentum towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Now is the time to be bold and innovative in the linked deliberations to deliver the 2030 Agenda by strengthening ECOSOC and taking the HLPF forward. Business and Industry calls on the UN system to seize these linked opportunities to address both ongoing sustainable development commitments and tackle new challenges on economic, social and environmental fronts, working more closely than ever before with business.

The B&I MG calls on the UN community to crowd in experts and “do-ers” from the private sector, and to mobilize countries and other stakeholders to rebuild better and stronger throughout their COVID-19 recovery working within the framework of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Member states have stated the need for business to actively engage, and both the UN Global Sustainable Development Report 2019 (GSDR) and the SG’s recent report on Economic and Social Impacts of the COVID-19 crisis have highlighted the crucial role of business.

This submission will: