Chartered Accountants are encouraging finance companies to share their knowledge widely, and promote diversity, as ways to work towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Following the launch of Finance & Business2030, Chartered Accountants Worldwide polled over 120 delegates from the public, private and third sectors for their reactions.
FinBiz2030 is a joint initiative between One Young World, Chartered Accountants Worldwide and the City of London. It launched in London on 2 April at a conference that featured finance and business professionals discussing ways to work towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We asked them four questions about how the finance and business community could make the greatest contribution to achieving the goals.Here’s what they told us, about shaping a more inclusive and sustainable future.
Sharing knowledge through education
Education was a recurring theme for many of our survey respondents. Many said the financial sector should pass on knowledge to others as a first step.“If we’re actually going to build inclusivity, we need to start financial literacy from a young age,” said one delegate. They stressed the importance of sharing finance knowledge and skills through education..
“The future is about education: how much financial education do schools get and how do we share our knowledge and experiences with the younger generations?” asked one delegate. Education is about more than passing down knowledge; one of our Chartered Accountants said the UN goals should be part of the curriculum, especially for MBAs.
Another respondent added: “The amount of people who know about the SDGs is limited in comparison to the majority of the population, and this is where targeted activism needs to be utilised. The finance community has a key role to play here as they reach every part of every organisation. They could be a key force for promoting and achieving the goals.”