The just ended 2021 RELX SDG Inspiration Day that took place on June 22, 2021 was amazing.
The event exploited measures to facilitate the implementation of UN SDGs notably SDG 10 (reduced inequalities).
Under the theme: Mobilising Business for a Better World: Accelerating Business Action on SDGs, participants did not fall short of impact takeaways.
The RELX SDG Inspiration Day started at 10:30 AM and ended at 4:30 PM (BST).
Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus father of both social business and microcredit, the founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh gave a fulfilling opening keynote address narrating how he came up with the system that gave poor people business loans in Bangladesh.
The 7 hrs event had panel discussions with crucial topics such as:
Mobilising future business leaders on SDGs
– Moderated by Monika Froehler, CEO, Ban Ki-Moon Centre for Global Citizens
Business for the rule of law
– Moderated by Patrick Stevens, Rule of Law Director, Optima Group
Accelerating business action on SDGs
– Moderated by James Harding, Co-Founder and Editor, Tortoise Media
How Businesses Advance SDGs with Science and Global Health Diplomacy
– Moderated by Robin van Puyenbroeck, EVP and Treasurer on the UNA-NY board
Business action to reduce inequalities
– Moderated by Steve Kenzie, Executive Director, UN Global Compact Network UK.
All 5 panel had well-grounded speakers among which Shabnam Siddiqui, Executive Director, UNGC India, Sarah Haddadi, Head of Rule of Law Business, LexisNexis Legal & Professional MENA, Usama Malik, Former Chief Innovation Officer/Chief Strategy Officer at Pfizer, Manuj Aggarwal, Chief Innovation Officer/Founder, TetraNoodle Technologies etc…
The panel on business action to reduce inequalities had heated discussions with speakers overviewing and advancing measures to reduce inequalities in the world in line with SDG (10).
Irina Bokova, former Director-General of UNESCO and Board Member of the Ban Ki-Moon Centre spoke about “digital divide” and how limited access and absence of internet in some parts of the world is enhancing global inequalities.
Manuj Aggarwal, Chief Innovation Officer/Founder of TetraNoodle Technologies highlighted the role of entrepreneurship and artificial intelligence in reducing inequalities.
“Just like how the industrial revolution came and changed the way production was done, helping humans to focus on other things, AI and machine learning is coming to disrupt our ways of thinking.
This will enable humans to focus on more creative thought and skills”. Noted the tech expert.
As concerns climate change, Manuj went further to recommend that communication strategies around climate change could be reviewed.
He said the messaging about the fight against climate change is more global than personal and as a result it does not touch the common man’s emotions and psychology.
Instead of telling people to promote eco-friendly activities so as to “make the world a better place”, we could better make the messaging personal by telling families how promoting the fight against climate can “change the lives of their children”.
Nobody cares about what happens to the world when they burn down forests but everyone cares about what happens to their family and children when they burn down forests or dispose of plastic wastes at random.
The sessions ended with several closing remarks notably from Ban Ki-moon, 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations and Co-chair of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens who gave a heart-touching keynote address.
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