An Emirati woman has been elected as a member of the Global Investors for Sustainable Development, GISD, Alliance, in a bid to scale up private sector investment for sustainable development.
On Tuesday, the United Nations announced Habiba Al Mar'ashi Al Hashimi, Co-Founder and Chairperson of the Emirates Environmental Group, as one of 30 influential global business leaders that will work together over the next two years to free up trillions of dollars from the private sector to finance the UN Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs.
The GISD Alliance is convened by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who called on the business leaders to step up to the challenge of financing the SDGs.
"We face widening inequality, increased devastation from conflicts and disasters and a rapidly warming Earth. These leaders have seized our sense of urgency, recognising that our pace must be at a run, not a crawl," Guterres said. "They are committing to cooperate across borders, across financial sectors and even with their competitors, because it is both ethical and good business sense to invest in sustainable development for all people on a healthy planet."
A pioneer of environmental campaigning and social responsibility, Al Hashimi said, "I am deeply committed to this global collaboration, which aims to bridge the gap between the funding deficit of the SDGs and the corpus of global assets."
"I look forward to bringing my experience in cross-sector collaboration and public private partnerships to GISD," she added.
Al Hashimi is also the founder of the Arabia CSR Network, and one of the founders of the Emirates Green Building Council. She has also served on the board of UN Global Compact, UNEP’s Major Groups Facilitating Committee, Global Reporting Initiative Stakeholder Council, and the Membership Committee of the World Green Building Council.
The Alliance has a two-year timeline, from October 2019 to October 2021. It will focus on facilitating solutions relating to increasing the available supply of long-term investment for sustainable development; realising SDG investment opportunities in developing countries, and enhancing the impact of private investment on sustainable development.
Source: WAM
