ACCA publishes commitments to delivering UN Sustainable Development Goals

Tuesday, 30 March 2021 03:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

ACCA Sri Lanka and Maldives Head Nilusha Ranasinghe

The UN Secretary General declared 2020 to be the year to mobilise for a ‘decade of action’ to deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) announced its contribution to this global ambition by publishing its own commitments to the delivery of the SDGs.

ACCA recognises the importance of all 17 interconnected SDGs, and asserts that its commitments demonstrate that ACCA and its community can make the most significant contribution towards nine of them. These include offering access to a quality finance and accountancy education that is free from artificial barriers, becoming Net Zero by 2030, and working in partnership to build an inclusive global profession that supports the development of ethical, sustainable and successful businesses and economies.

ACCA Chief Executive Helen Brand OBE stated: “Setting out our commitments is an important and necessary step in ensuring ACCA and its community plays a key role in the transformational change business and society needs to see over the next decade. Publishing them brings transparency and accountability to our work and is a logical progression for an organisation that has a proud history of championing sustainability. Our purpose, values and strategy to 2025 already align closely to the SDGs, and this latest development shows our whole-hearted commitment to delivering on them, reporting on them annually and engaging with appropriate partners to help us do this.” ACCA Sri Lanka Head Nilusha Ranasinghe adds: “We believe that making these commitments is the right thing to do because we have always been dedicated to promoting the public value. Here in Sri Lanka, we have been running our Sustainability Reporting Awards for over 15 years, judging business’s annual reports on the measures of credibility, clarity and comprehensiveness of their reports following the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines for sustainability reporting. And in 2021, aligning these awards to the SDGs will make them even more relevant to the global need to meet these goals.”

ACCA Sustainability Head Jimmy Greer says, “We have a clear rationale for each commitment, with a framework of measures to drive the delivery of our commitments. This measurement is important, and it complements our ongoing advocacy in this critically important area. We plan to keep ‘walking the talk’ when it comes to sustainability. Our commitments are a work in progress, which we can build, evolve and unite around. Finally, we recognise that delivering the SDGS cannot be done alone. It is a massive global effort and ACCA is intent on continuing to play its part.”