As part of the visit to Spain by Susan Brown, Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant Administrator and Director, Bureau for External Relations and Advocacy (BERA) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Spanish Association for Standardisation, UNE, hosted a working session at its headquarters on 24 March to present the global ISO/UNDP standards for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda to the private sector, academia and government. These standards are the result of the alliance between ISO and UNDP.
This event is a further step in preparing for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) which will take place from 30 June to 3 July 2025 in Seville, an opportunity to speed up the rollout of the 2030 Agenda and support reform of the international financial architecture towards the SDGs.
The session was opened by Javier García, Director General of UNE and Vice-President of ISO, and Susan Brown, followed by Tania Marcos, head of the UNE SDG Committee, who presented the first global standard containing guidelines to help organisations worldwide achieve the SDGs, available in Spanish as UNE-ISO/UNDP PAS 53002. She also pointed to the development of the forthcoming ISO/UNDP 53001 standard, which will set out the requirements for implementing an SDG management system.
This was followed by a discussion in which participants shared their insights on managing and optimising their contribution to the SDGs and exchanged initiatives and challenges for faster progress towards sustainable development. They also underscored the key role played by these standards in systematically managing and optimising organisations' impact on sustainable development, as they are an integrative tool featuring a unified approach that builds a common language among all stakeholders.
The session featured: Tim Strawson and Jordi Llopart, UNDP; Cristina Rivero and Lourdes Pamies, CEOE; José Luis Ortiz, Airbus Defence and Space; Juan Pous, UPM's General Foundation; Clara Rey, Repsol; María Molina, SpainNAB; Patricia Sanz, Spanish Exporters and Investors Club; and Mónica Sanzo and Iván Moya, UNE.
The joint ISO/UNDP Guidelines for contributing to the SDGs project aligns organisational strategies with the Sustainable Development Goals and improves sustainability reporting and transparency. It is aimed at all types of organisations, regardless of their size or area of activity, in both the public and private sectors.
