INDUSTRY
4
INCLUSIVE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
“We recognize that people are at the center of sustainable
development and in this regard, we strive for a world which
is just, equitable and inclusive and we commit to work
together to promote sustained and inclusive economic
growth, social development, environmental protection and
thereby to benefit all”.
Rio+20 Outcome document
The Future We Want
June 2012 (paragraph 6)
The Millennium Development Goals
and the post-2015 development agenda
There is no doubt that the adoption of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) has engendered a common
focus on priorities for the development community.
The MDGs have played a catalytic role in addressing
extreme poverty in its many dimensions while promoting
gender equality, education and environmental
sustainability.
They have had a significant impact on lifting many of the
world’s poorest from abject poverty. The reality remains,
however, that at their inception in the year 2000, the focus
was more towards the development of the social sectors,
while ignoring the importance of economic growth as a
vital prerequisite to achieve sustainable development.
It has since been recognized that in order to redress the
situation, and to meet the many challenges faced by
developing countries, including least developed and middle
income countries, the post-2015 development agenda
will have to take into account all three dimensions of
sustainable development, namely economic growth, social
inclusiveness and equity, and environmental sustainability.
Indeed, this was the core message of the outcome document
of the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development held in June 2012, which tasked Member
States with preparing a set of Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs).
It has been echoed elsewhere, and articulated in such
important documents as the new development policy of
the EU and the 2012 ECOSOC Ministerial Declaration, as
well as the report of the United Nations System Task Team
established by the Secretary-General of the United Nations
in January 2012 to prepare a system-wide vision for a post2015 development agenda.
The General Assembly is likely to consider new development
goals in 2014. In order to prepare for this discussion, the
Secretary-General appointed a High-level Panel (HLP) on
the post-2015 development agenda in July 2012, co-chaired
by the President of Indonesia, the President of Liberia, and
the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The mandate of
the HLP included the provision of recommendations on an
agenda encompassing the three dimensions of sustainable
development.
ThE ROLE Of INDUSTRY
IN PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Economic development, and in particular the development
of the productive sectors, is the critical driver of enduring
poverty reduction. Indeed, it has been the process of
economic development that has lifted 700 million people
out of poverty in China.
Industrial development is a key factor in bringing about
structural change to set the economies of poor countries
on the path of sustained economic growth, and lift people
out of poverty.
Industry plays a particularly important role in stimulating
economic development and growth because of its
transformative impact on production processes and the
wealth that it creates through the addition of value to
primary resources.
Of course, it is widely understood that the industrial
development process needs to be pursued in a manner that
is compatible with the other two dimensions of sustainable
development – i.e. the social and environmental dimensions.
Industry provides the foundation for entrepreneurship,
promotes business investment, fosters technological
upgrading and dynamism, improves human skills,
creates jobs and establishes the foundation on which
both agriculture and services may expand. It is therefore
the principal source of employment creation and income
generation.
This is something that can be done. There are no inherent
contradictions in the three dimensions of sustainable
development when it comes to industry – in fact, inclusive
and sustainable industrial development is the only solution
to meeting the global objectives of eradicating poverty
and reducing income disparities while minimizing
environmental damage.
Industry is
the principal source
of employment creation
and income generation
The CONTRIBUTION OF UNIDO
As the primary driver of economic growth and employment
creation, productive industrial activities play a central role
in poverty reduction.
UNIDO, as the specialized agency of the United Nations
system mandated to promote inclusive and sustainable
industrial development and international industrial
cooperation, is well-placed to make a significant
contribution to this process.
themselves, but with a range of partners, each of whom
contributes their specific strengths and competences.
These partners include, inter alia, multilateral and
bilateral development organizations, non-governmental
organizations, the private sector, and academia.
Each of the Organization’s three mutually reinforcing
programmatic focus areas of poverty reduction through
productive activities, trade capacity-building, and energy
and environment is related to one or more of the three
dimensions of sustainable development.
The developmental interventions undertaken by UNIDO
under these programmatic focus areas are designed to
have a catalytic and transformative effect on the economic
structures of the programme countries, with the aim
of promoting economic growth and diversification in a
socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable manner.
Indeed, the Organization’s medium-term programme
framework for 2010-2013 specifies equitable growth and
sustainability as its principal country-level outcomes. In
achieving these developmental outcomes, UNIDO draws
on four categories of services, or enablers: technical
cooperation, analytical and policy advisory services,
standard setting and compliance, and convening for
knowledge transfer and knowledge networking.
UNIDO is aware that it can have the greatest impact on
the economic growth of the world’s poorer countries and
people by teaming up not only with developing countries
Within its programmatic focus area of poverty reduction
through productive activities, UNIDO thus assists
developing countries in their efforts to reach the MDG
target of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger through
programmes to support agribusiness and agro-processing
for food security and food safety, facilitating investment
and technology flows, and promoting the development of
entrepreneurship and SMEs.
Through its technical cooperation activities and other
services, UNIDO is able to strengthen the capacities of
businesses and institutions.
In providing these services, UNIDO takes account of
the fact that the most vulnerable groups throughout the
world are youth and women.
There are more young people in the world today than ever
before; with over one billion living in developing countries.
Without access to jobs and the means to fulfill their
ambitions, the youth are unable to achieve their economic
potential and may even pose a threat to social stability.
While important, the solution to their plight does not
lie merely in providing them with a basic education and
vocational training. UNIDO strongly believes that an
education based on entrepreneurship development plays a
vital role in developing the attitudes, skills and knowledge
that enable youth to establish successful businesses,
generate their own incomes, create jobs for others, and
contribute to the sustainable economic growth of their
communities and countries.
The development and introduction of an efficient SME
registration framework in Viet Nam is a good example
of a UNIDO project, which has been instrumental in the
growth of the SME sector in that country. The objective of
the project is the promotion of private sector development
by reducing risks and costs of doing business. The project
has resulted in the establishment of National Business
Registration System, and aims at simplifying business
regulations, and providing real-time electronic data
sharing among three ministries.
The empowerment of women, and in particular their
economic empowerment, has a positive impact on
sustainable economic growth and sustainable industrial
development. UNIDO aims, in its programmes, to integrate
women into the growth and development process, which
in turn, yields positive multiplier effects for households,
communities and ultimately national economies.
UNIDO recognizes the critical role played by trade as
an engine for growth and the need to help developing
countries ‘trade their way’ out of poverty and
marginalization in increasingly globalized markets.
Through its thematic priority area of trade capacitybuilding, UNIDO offers its Member States a cohesive
approach to market success, by strengthening the
competitiveness of SMEs in developing countries and
enabling them to comply with international standards
and norms, and enter national, regional and global value
chains.
UNIDO’s contributions in the field of trade capacitybuilding have been widely recognized. The European
Union has become a major source of funding for UNIDO’s
activities in this area.
An independent study published by the Norwegian Agency
for Development Cooperation (Norad) in 2011, also
singled out UNIDO as “delivering good value for money
in the field of standards and quality, an area where the
Organization has a unique competence internationally”.
MOZAMBIQUE:
UNIDO has helped the government to formulate an entrepreneurship development syllabus for high schools to provide
children with the skills and knowledge to establish their own businesses as job creators.
TURKEY:
UNIDO has developed a three-year capacity-building programme for the Turkish textile sector, in partnership with other
UN agencies, to enable the sector to become more productive, innovative and responsive to consumer requirements in
developed and emerging markets.
Through its thematic priority area of energy and
environment, UNIDO promotes access to sustainable
energy for productive use, as well as supporting resourceefficient production and consumption through its Green
Industry initiative.
Though ambitious, these goals are achievable with the
right mix of policy incentives, public finance and private
capital. So far over 50 countries are supporting the SE4All
initiative, which has also attracted a significant element of
private sector partnership.
It also helps developing countries comply with
multinational environmental agreements, such as the
Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone
Layer, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic
Pollutants, and the Strategic Approach to International
Chemicals Management. As an implementing agency
of the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the
Montreal Protocol, UNIDO has consistently been rated
as the best performer in nine of the past eleven years. In
this way it seeks to ensure that the industrial development
process meets the highest possible degree of environmental
sustainability.
The Director-General of UNIDO was initially appointed
as the co-chair of the High-level Group established by the
Secretary-General to oversee the SE4All initiative, and
subsequently its chief executive.
Energy access is one of the most pressing of all the global
challenges and is central to all the three dimensions of
sustainable development. UNIDO has played a leading
role in the development of the Sustainable Energy for All
(SE4All) initiative launched by the Secretary-General
of the United Nations, which has drawn up three interlinked and complementary global goals to be achieved
by 2030:
i) ensure universal access to modern energy services;
ii) double the rate of improvement in energy efficiency;
iii) double the share of renewable energy in the global
energy mix.
UNIDO’s Green Industry initiative assists the greening of
existing industries by promoting a continuous increase
in their resource productivity and environmental
performance, as well as the establishment of specialized
green industries that deliver environmental goods and
services.
During the Rio+20 Conference, UNIDO and the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) launched
the Green Industry Platform - a global high-level multistakeholder partnership intended to act as a forum for
catalyzing, mobilizing and mainstreaming action on Green
Industry around the world.
By encouraging the more efficient use of energy and
raw materials in manufacturing processes and services,
the Platform will contribute both to cleaner and more
competitive industrial development, and will help reduce
pollution and reliance on unsustainable use of natural
resources.
Together with UNEP, UNIDO has also supported a global
programme of National Cleaner Production Centres,
and in October 2011 launched the joint UNIDO-UNEP
Programme on Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production
(RECP) to enhance the effectiveness of these centres through
improved networking and knowledge management among
the centres themselves and with other institutions that
deliver resource efficient and cleaner production.
UNIDO believes fervently in the value of regional
programmes: the GEF Strategic Programme for West
Africa (SPWA) Energy Component is one such example.
It utilizes a programmatic umbrella approach at the
regional level that transforms global and regional goals
and commitments into concrete action in the field of
sustainable energy in the sixteen countries of the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS): Benin,
Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cape Verde, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire,
Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal,
Sierra Leone, The Gambia, and Togo.
The Regional Project, which is being implemented by
UNIDO in cooperation with the ECOWAS Centre for
Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE), seeks
to create an enabling policy and institutional environment
for coordination, coherence, integration and knowledge
management within concrete energy projects at the
country level, and strives to promote renewable energy
and energy efficient technologies and markets in the West
African Region.
HONDURAS:
As part of a wider UN programme for universal water and sanitation access, UNIDO is assisting companies in
preparing sustainable long-term business strategies to reduce water contamination and increase the economic
performance of the companies through the transfer of environmentally-sound technologies.
COOPERATION BETWEEN UNIDO AND THE EUROPEAN UNION (EU):
A PARTNERSHIP FOR INCLUSIVE GROWTH AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Since 2005, UNIDO has enjoyed a growing partnership with the EU, primarily in UNIDO’s focus areas of trade capacitybuilding and poverty reduction through productive activities. The new EU communication on “Increasing the impact
of EU Development Policy: An agenda for change” creates an excellent basis for further developing this partnership in a
broader range of areas including private sector development, industrial policies, food security and energy.
In carrying out the core requirements of its mandate and
mission, UNIDO has more than doubled its technical
cooperation delivery over the past ten years. At the same
time, it has also substantially increased its mobilization of
financial resources, testifying to the growing international
recognition of the Organization as an effective provider
of inclusive and sustainable industrial development
services. The fact that this increase in its services has
been accomplished with virtually stable staff levels und
an essentially unchanged regular budget for much of the
past fifteen years underlines the increasing efficiency and
productivity of the Organization.
UNITED NATIONS INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION
Vienna International Centre, P.O. Box 300, 1400 Vienna, Austria
Telephone: (+43-1) 26026-0, Fax: (+43-1) 26026-69
E-mail: unido@unido.org, Internet: www.unido.org