4 mars 2020
As the curtain lifted on 2020, the UN raised a welcome sense of urgency for the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by announcing a “Decade of Action.” The campaign makes it clear that we have a long way to go to make enough progress to keep the world inhabitable—not to mention to bring about equitable prosperity—by 2030 and beyond. All those efforts are grounded in the sustainable development of the global economy.
At the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, world leaders focused closely on the SDGs and the need—if we’re going to reach these goals—to remake much of the global financial ecosystem. I couldn’t agree more.
If we want to make broad and lasting gains—and, in the process, strengthen national financial systems—we need to turn to an often-overlooked pillar of economic progress: high-quality accountancy standards implemented by a strong national accountancy profession.
To put it simply, we can’t realize the massive potential benefits of meeting the SDGs if we don’t invest in standards and the profession. The symptoms of a weak financial system—fraud and corruption, economic instability, barriers to philanthropic financing and necessary foreign direct investment—are all major obstacles to financing projects in support of the SDGs. Without a strong national financial system, many SDGs—quality education, decent work and economic growth, climate action, and many more—will be out of reach.
Accountants help organizations set and achieve objectives, and measure and communicate success to key stakeholders. In these ways, the profession creates high-functioning national financial systems and drives long-term value creation. All this is critical to the SDGs and our shared future on this planet.
The whole article can be read further on the website of the IFAC.