Mr George Goldsmith, Chairman and Founder, Tapestry Networks, and Ms Jan Beagle, Deputy Executive Director Management and Programmes Branch, UNAIDS, 22 September, 2010.
Today 300 Heads of States and Governments, chief executives, civil society leaders and Heads of UN agencies participated in the United Nations Private Sector Forum on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), chaired by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The objective of the meeting was to identify concrete actions the private sector can take to help close MDG implementation gaps over the next five years. Among the topics addressed by the forum was maternal and child health and HIV, as well as empowering women and achieving equality.
“We depend on the resources and capacity of the private sector to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The private sector has the lead on innovation,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Companies committed to conduct business in a responsible manner, aligned with fundamental environmental and social values and the Secretary-General called upon the private sector to invest in new and creative ways to capitalize on innovations, products and services to benefit the poor.
“UNAIDS strongly believes that without action to promote the rights of women and girls, the AIDS response has no hope of reversing the epidemic,” said Jan Beagle, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Programmes and Management Branch.
“Governments, civil society and the private sector must come together to ensure that women and girls have universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support,” she said. “We must have zero new infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS related-deaths among women and girls.”
The United Nations is strengthening its capacity to engage and partner with the private sector. UN agencies, funds and programmes have a number of partnership opportunities for businesses to leverage their relative strengths, resources and competencies in support of achieving the MDGs.
Further information on these and other UN–business partnerships that could benefit from additional corporate engagement and support can be found at business.un.org.
