Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General for UNCTAD interview with David Nelson at Sustainable Stock Exchange Initiative (NYSE)
HIGHLIGHTS
- Defeat of extreme poverty is a moral imperative
- Sustainability includes social inclusion and economic & environmental visibility
- Our sustainability goals keep us evolving
(ESG News) – The best way to achieve sustainability goals may be to get buy-in from stock exchanges.
“It means that enterprise will believe in the value of sustainability. They become couriers of a message that is going beyond their own interests,” said Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi. The Secretary General of UNCTAD was interviewed by David Nelson, host of The Traders Network Show, at the 2015 U.N. Sustainable Stock Exchange Event. His message was that when it comes to sustainability, there is no such thing as an individual victory.
“I believe very strongly that we cannot celebrate partial success,” Kituyi said. He stressed the need for all sectors—corporate, NGO, government—to work together to bring about meaningful change. If we leave one part of society behind, we create islands of prosperity that will eventually leave us all underwater, he said.
“Where wealth emerges, we offer the minimum requirements for the most vulnerable among us to have a decent livelihood. To me that is the seed of poverty that has traditionally surrounded islands of prosperity,” Kituyi said.
Kituyi also said that sustainability goals cannot remain static.
“Sustainability goals must have a life. They must keep evolving. The standards we have set for acceptable minimums of conduct must keep improving as society grows,” he said. “Similarly, the pledges that enterprises make, the pledges that the corporate sector makes, the pledges that governments make must be constantly improved as objective and subjective conditions change.”