The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry has consistent focus on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030.

On 8th May 2023, The Centre for Responsible Business and The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry organized the meeting on Multi−Stakeholder Dialogue for Collaborative Actions on Sustainability and SDGs. The panel for the program consisted members of the West Bengal Government, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Industry Stakeholders from various horizons of business.

The Objective of the meeting was to bring together industry stakeholders for discussion and identifying potential collaborative areas with the government to achieve the SDGs collectively as a State and promote awareness regarding SDGs across the country.

The core points of discussion of the meeting were as under:

• The event primarily has sent the message of localizing the activities through enablers of SDGs like Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) as achieving SDGs is not a singular approach only to be carried out by the UN, but integration of the goals needs to be localized and addressed strategically keeping note of strengths and limitations.

• The world is in crisis with respect to SDG’s as per part 1 of sustainability report of 2022. SDG’s are for everybody however mostly people are unaware of SDGs. This is to be addressed by showcasing business practices which are innovative. India Ranks 121 out of 163 UN Member countries. India is critical in achieving the global SDG goals. Chief Guest, Smt. Vandana Yadav pointed out that West Bengal is frontrunner in six SDGs. Social Initiatives by the West Bengal Government such as, SwasthaSathi, LakshmirBhandar, SobujSathi, Kanyashree (recognized as best practice by UN) to improve the standard of living of the citizens and thereby contributing to the economy. Additionally, she also encouraged industry stakeholders to collaborate in terms of business ventures to increase cash flow in the sustainability development sector and generate other sources of funds than CSR.

• On a policy making level, the the discussion was that the policy makers should holistically project their focus on the 3 Es− Ecology, Economy and Environment.

• Adherence to ESG during the entire process of supply chain is crucial. Any Collaboration should be meaningful, and the parties will have to be considerate and thoughtful about it.

Apart from our Chief Guest Smt. Vandana Yadav, we had speakers who added value to the programme were Mr. Manojit Sengupta, Co−Chairperson, Energy Environment and Water Committee, BCC&I and Delivery Centre Head− Eastern Region, TCS; Dr. Meera Mitra, Member, CRB Governing Body; Mr. Laurent le Danois, Team Leader, Co−Operation Section, Delegation of the European Union to India and Bhutan; Mr. Asim Prasad, Chief General Manager & Zonal Head, Kolkata, GAIL (India) Ltd; Dr. Sudip Kumar Sinha, IAS, Secretary, Department of Finance, Government of West Bengal; Rijit Sengupta, CEO, CRB; Ms. Madhulika Sharma, Chief Sustainability Officer, ITC; Mr. Tatheer Zaidi, General Manager- Pollution Management in MSMEs, Solidaridad; Mr. Arijit Raha, SG & CEO, Indian Tea Association.

The programme also had Breakout group wherein participants were divided into 4 groups to work on “Enabling Business− CSO− Government Collaborative Actions for SDGs” to make presentation on types of collaboration, details of the idea, specific target SDGs, the objectives, potential partners, challenges and opportunities, required support.

The Breakout Group session was one of the highlights of the program, the participants came up with collaborative ideas in types of collaboration such as, Business−CSOs/ Government−CSOs/ Business−CSOs−Government. The ideas of collaboration presented were innovative, insightful and truly justified the purpose of the program to exercise practice of making efforts in attaining SDGs in businesses through multi−Stakeholder collaborations.

The “Multi−Stakeholder Dialogue for Collaborative Actions on Sustainability and SDGs” was an enlightening and thought− provoking event for all participants. The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCC&I) and Centre for Responsible Business (CRB) are encouraged to conduct more programs such as this to continue dialogue among stakeholders and enabling scope for collaboration and address to SDGs.