Dear friends!

This year we had celebrated the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations and the 20th anniversary of the UN Global Compact. Unfortunately, these significant dates have occurred at a time of global transformations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Right now, perhaps the first time in a decade, all business representatives – both large and small – have spoken loudly about sustainability and comprehensive mobility as the basis for and guarantee of successful business and economic development.

As the world’s largest initiative for responsible business, we are proud to expand the UN Global Compact Network in Ukraine for several years in a row, and share with the world these ideas and examples of successful practices.

The pandemic did not make it easier for businesses to improve their sustainability indicators, however despite this, businesses have worked long and hard to achieve significant results by coming together to deal with global challenges.

In this publication, we present the finalists’ cases of the Partnership for Sustainability Award – successful examples of sustainable partnership. These cases prove that by being conscious, both Ukrainian and foreign companies can implement incredible projects that will be able to change our society for the better in the near future.

2020 was a fortunate year for our projects. We organized the first wave of the international program Young SDG Innovators. The start of the program took place over a web-summit in Lisbon and ended at the UN Global Compact Leaders’ Summit. And it was a solution from one of the Ukrainian business teams that was named the most potential for scaling globally.

We have launched and provided the first “IT nation” educational program. The goal of the free online program “IT-education” for residents of Donetsk and Luhansk regions is to transform these regions from an industrial economy to one that prioritizes human capital and innovation. More than 2,500 people of all ages, from 15 to 60, were trained on the platform. The course meets the national goals of the information society. In addition, with the intent of helping our program graduates, the UN Global Compact Network in Ukraine made deals with more than ten companies, which are promising to hire our graduates.

This year we launched two more international programs: “SDG Ambition” and “Anti-Corruption Collective Action”. The SDG Ambition program offers businesses assistance in understanding the Sustainable Development Goals and mechanisms for embedding the Goals in the company’s strategic and operational activities. Anti-Corruption Collective Action is a long-term initiative aimed at uniting all the stakeholders and developing the framework to end corruption in our country.

Also, together with the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs, we launched the Sustainable Development Club, aimed to bring the Ukrainian business closer to social responsibility.

One of our key achievements this year was our worldwide reporting on the results of the Sustainable Development Goals. It has been 5 years since the world community defined the Goals and set a task to implement them by 2030.

Thus for the first time, in 2020, Ukraine had submitted its Voluntary National Review to the Political Forum on Sustainable Development. The report was prepared by the Ministry for Development of Economic, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine. The UN Global Compact Network in Ukraine compiled the best practices for implementing each of the Sustainable Development Goals by Ukrainian companies and provided that information to the Ministry for their review.

Celebrating the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, business leaders from more than 100 countries supported multilateralism. More than a thousand CEOs have demonstrated their support for the United Nations policy by signing a Statement from Business Leaders for Renewed Global Cooperation. The statement was signed by some of the world’s largest brands, along with hundreds of other large, small and medium-sized businesses that are participants of the UN Global Compact. Many Ukrainian companies have also joined this global initiative.

In the spirit of renewed global cooperation, public and private institutions should show their responsibility, ethics, comprehensiveness and transparency.

We expect that next year the largest network of responsible businesses will be enlarged with an unprecedented number of new participants!

 

CEO of Global Compact Network in Ukraine
Tatiana Sakharuk