Unilever Sri Lanka Chairman Carl Cruz and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Country Director Jorn Sorensen recently handed over a policy action paper for the promotion of public private partnerships for sustainable development to the Secretary to the President, Udaya Seneviratne.
The paper was the direct result of last year’s Unilever-UNGC-UNDP Forum which brought together Sri Lanka’s business leaders across a myriad of industries in the private sector, key personnel from the public sector, and key development partners to work on driving mutually beneficial partnerships towards the achievement of key priorities related to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Udaya Seneviratne, Secretary to President of Sri Lanka, said,
“While the government continues to work towards bringing about sustainable development we commend the private sector for taking up the cause as well. I look forward to seeing the steps outlined in this policy paper in action.”
Carl Cruz, Chairman, Unilever Sri Lanka, said, “The changes required by the SDGs are neither small nor narrow. Therefore, if we are to achieve these goals we must work together to help the nation realize its vision of a brighter future.
Only together can we bring long term sustainable change to the nation and help propel its growth. The steps that we as a nation need to take are outlined in the policy paper that we handed over to the President’s Secretary.”
Jorn Sorensen, UNDP Sri Lanka Country Director, said, “Sustainable development is the future and by investing in it now, we are securing Sri Lanka’s place in that future. However, to achieve sustainable development we will need the Government, businesses and development partners to work together towards our collective vision for the nation. The outline for this collaborative framework is laid out in the policy paper that we handed over to the President.”
The policy paper outlines several projects targeted at specific SDGs. These include project SustainabiliTEA which will target sustainable agriculture. The aim of the project is to ensure that all tea produced in Sri Lanka comply with sustainable agricultural practices by 2020. Partners in the project are Unilever Sri Lanka, Aitken Spence, Dialog Axiata, and Sri Lanka Tea Federation.
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