108: Power and influence of top 2000 companies in achieving the SDGs: Samantha Ndiwalana, World Benchmarking Alliance

ShownotesA while ago I invited Samantha Ndiwalana, a Senior Researcher at World Benchmarking Alliance to talk about the pivotal role of the private sector in meeting the SDGs. The WBA maps 2000 of the worlds most influential companies. The influence is staggering, the companies have over $36.5 trillion in revenue and employ more than 97 million people across 85 countries. How are these companies identified? It starts with looking at the seven transformations needed to meet UN SDGs: Social, Food and Agriculture, Decarbonisation and Energy, Nature, Digital, Urban and Financial. The WBA then go on to identify the 2000 keystone companies within these industries based on 5 principles that goes beyond just size and also looks at impact and influenceIt is a tall order to challenging the prevailing bias that leading companies are based only in Western countries or the global north to ensure that the right companies are included in that list. Samantha and I discussed this and more in our conversation👉🏾 Why is there less representation from the global south? Is it because we equate size with influence👉🏾 Engaging with the power and influence of state owned entities👉🏾 We discussed a recent report that spoke about ‘emerging markets have longer runaway and steeper slope for SDG improvement’ (according to an American PE firm)?👉🏾 The big emerging challenge: the sustainability information gap 👉🏾 The reality that companies from developing markets generally receive limited funding to support SDG focused investments 👉🏾 Are companies from developing countries less sustainable or is it a measurement issue?We also discussed why achieving SDGs in emerging markets is set to become more important going forward - it is fairly straightforward actually………..To listen to the episode head to the link in the comments 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾Episode Transcript: Sudha: Good morning Samantha. Thank you for being a guest on The Elephant in the room Podcast today. Samantha: Good morning, Sudha. It's great to be here. Thank you for having me. Sudha: Let's just get started with the questions. Give us a quick introduction to who you are and what you do at the WBA. Samantha: Yes, gladly.Samantha: So I work as a senior researcher and company engagement lead at the WBA. My focuses are digital inclusion and that's looking at some of the world's most influential tech companies, how well, or maybe not so well they're doing in terms of making sure technology is ethical, fair, safe, sustainable for everyone.My other focus is the SDG 2000, and we'll speak a bit about that today. And that is the universe of companies that we look at, at the WBA. So, managing that list, putting it together, and just making sure it's representative of an ever changing world. Sudha: How critical is the private sector to meeting the SDGs? We are now in the decade of reporting so to speak and there are not too many years before we get to 2030. How critical is the private sector to meeting the SDGs? Samantha: Oh, I would say they're quite pivotal. So if the central promise of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, around which the Sustainable Development Goals are planned, if the central promise of that is to leave no one behind, then one of the ways we get there is by leaving no company...