Member States across Europe, the Middle East and Africa are open for business, and they want their local communities to be involved in the development process, an integral part of achieving the UN’s SDGs by 2030. This was the main message from governments that took part at a high-level forum on 26 September at the United Nations headquarters in New York during the UN General Assembly. The event was jointly hosted by the governments of Canada and Ghana in collaboration with the Financing for Development Office, UN DESA; the UNSG Task Force on Digital Financing of the SDGs; the Global Partnerships Forum; and Ecolog. Other attendees to the event included Her Majesty Queen Máxima of The Netherlands, and Her Excellency Mrs. Amina J. Mohammed the Deputy Secretary of the United Nations.

His Excellency Mr. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the President of the Republic of Ghana, highlighted the importance of development to the region and the contribution that it makes to critical education and human rights initiatives like the UN SDGs. The President echoed comments made earlier that day to the General Assembly where he explained the SDGs were a holistic way forward to developing the region. President Nana Akufo-Addo, a leading advocate of the SDGs, noted that digitization had a critical role to play in the development of the African region.

Ecolog was the sole industry representative with its CEO, Ali Vezvaei, delivering the welcome address. Citing the UN as the main driver for peace and security, Mr. Vezvaei explained that Ecolog founder Nazif Destani, who also attended the session, established Ecolog during the United Nations’ peacekeeping efforts in the South Eastern European region in the nineties. Mr. Vezvaei explained that, with peace, came the opportunity for today’s digitization and development, “Ecolog has transformed into a global provider of intelligent integrated support services in over 40 countries across 150 locations.” Mr. Vezvaei further noted that energy solutions, logistics, smart city management and biometric mobile banking, using innovative block chain platforms, now makeup a large part of the Ecolog service portfolio. He further added that the company has already implemented education projects in Iraq and Central African Republic, and recently submitted its Communication on Progress for the UN Global Compact. Ecolog is set to continue the implementation of education projects throughout the African region.    

The event concluded with multi-stakeholder discussions focusing specifically the leadership role of Member States and the Private Sector. Panelists included Her Excellency Dr. Sahar Nasr, the Minister of Investments and International Cooperation of the Arab Republic of Egypt and business leaders from private investment sector with firms such as City Bank, Blackrock and the Global Impact Investment Network.