Key highlight
- The UN Global Compact Network Nigeria has announced its Partnership with the Dangote Group on Sustainable Supplier Impact Programme.
- The program is aimed at educating and equipping suppliers of large companies in order to advance supply chain sustainability in Nigeria.
- The Programme will also provide participants with real insights into how to incorporate sustainable design into products and services, as well as establish an execution strategy.
The United Nations Global Compact Network Nigeria has announced its partnership with the Dangote Group for the Sustainable Supplier Impact Programme (SSIP) in Nigeria.
The announcement is contained in a press release made available to Nairametrics by the UN Global Compact Network Nigeria on Wednesday.
According to them, Dangote Group, which is a participant in the Global Compact, was selected as the ambassador for the program.
About the Programme
The Programme is a global program developed by the United Nations Global Compact in collaboration with Accenture to advance supply chain sustainability through upskilling participants on social and environmental sustainability topics.
The program is being implemented in Nigeria, India, Kenya, and Mexico, as well as a global pilot and is aimed at educating and equipping suppliers of large companies with the objective for participants to achieve sustainability knowledge growth and incorporate sustainability into their business operations.
According to them, it was developed with a focus that through supplier sustainability training, the supply chains of large companies will become exponentially more sustainable, thereby achieving global impact.
More details
The program was launched on April 13 and is slated to run for five months from April to August.
The participants were selected by the UN Global Compact Network Nigeria through the Dangote group and they are also suppliers of Dangote.
Accenture revealed that 63% of CEOs call out the difficulty in measuring Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance (ESG) data across the value chain as a barrier to achieving sustainability in their various sectors.
They said “ We are in a new era where the action is required beyond internal company operations and across the entire supply chain. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) embedding sustainability is critical for global prosperity and they represent a significant opportunity for impact across the four issue areas of the UN Global Compact – Human Rights, Labour, Environment, and Anti-Corruption.
“SMEs need tactical support to tackle the three most consistent barriers to accelerating sustainability progress – Lack of Sustainability Proficiency, Inadequate Access to Resources, and Limited Collaboration, and this program intended to address these challenges.
“The Sustainable Supplier Impact Programme uniquely positions enterprises to collaborate with their major company customers to take collaborative action on sustainability goals and benefit through peer-to-peer collaboration,” said Naomi Nwokolo, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact Network Nigeria.
“The Programme will provide participants with real insights into how to incorporate sustainable design into products and services, as well as establish an execution strategy.
“We anticipate that our collaboration with Dangote will provide the beneficiaries with tangible ideas on how to incorporate sustainable design into products and services.” The statement reads.
The partnership
Through this partnership, the UN Global Compact Network Nigeria will work with Dangote Group to drive sustainability by design across its supply chain, facilitated by Incentives, Ecosystem Networks, and Learning Capacity Development for the SMEs.
During this program, the SMEs will gain unique insights into the different topics of business sustainability such as Business Resiliency, Sustainability Financing, Gender, and Climate amongst others; and be empowered to align their sustainability work with global sustainability action and commitments.
The Dangote group on its own part said the program aligns with their commitment to the SDGs agenda and will help in upskilling SMEs in their value chain.
They said “As Company Ambassador for SSIP in Nigeria, we are fully aware that no single organization can drive the SDG agenda in isolation. This program aligns with our commitment to the applicable UN SDGs in mainstreaming sustainability via our seven Sustainability Pillars, whilst embracing a critical subset by upskilling the small and medium enterprises in our supply chain,”
About UN Global Compact Network Nigeria
The UN Global Compact Network Nigeria is one of the 74 Local Networks (country offices) of the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative.
Guided by The Ten Principles and the 17 SDGs, they support companies and stakeholders in understanding what responsible business means within a global and local context and provide guidance to translate sustainability commitments into action.