UNDP Moldova, in partnership with Danish SDG Accelerator and BCTA Impact Lab, launches one-year business acceleration programme, aimed at engaging the private sector in the achievement of the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The initiative is a collaborative pilot managed by UNDP Moldova’s Business Innovation Lab, with support from Sweden, UNDP, and with co-funding from private sector.

On 1 February 2019, a first event was organized in Chisinau for seven small and medium-sized private companies in the Republic of Moldova, interested to work with UNDP to explore businesses’ alignment to the SDGs, innovative business modelling, but also impact management and evaluation.

The participants analyzed international business cases of companies aligning their operations to the SDGs or launching new products/services with impact on the SDGs. The examples included businesses focused on reducing food and plastic waste, CO2 emissions from transport.

“The participating companies received a brief introductory training on how the SDGs could present interesting business opportunities for their operations and how impact management could be useful for them. They learned about the UN guiding principles on business and human rights, alignment of corporate social responsibility strategies to specific SDGs,” noted Dumitru Vasilescu, Policy Specialist at UNDP Moldova.

UNDP is aiming to launch over 60 SDG Acceleration Labs in its country offices, to better combine global, cutting-edge thinking in development to build on and invest in local solutions and partners, thereby accelerating SDG implementation in all countries involved. The Labs will be connected and supported by a global learning network, as well as a wide array of partners.

The Danish SDG Accelerator for SMEs is a UNDP programme funded by the Danish Industry Foundation ran together with Monitor Deloitte as the implementing partner, helping 30 Danish small and medium-sized industrial companies to develop new SDG business solutions.

The BCTA Impact Lab is a UNDP-developed and managed platform for inclusive businesses to better measure and manage their impact on the SDGs.