Eliminating poverty everywhere is the first goal of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Its placement at number one underscores the importance given to poverty reduction by the international community and the urgent need to achieve it with respect to the subsequent goals. Ariel Meyerstein, USCIB’s vice president for labor affairs, corporate responsibility and corporate governance, spoke at a poverty reduction panel at the 2016 Annual Conference of the Society for International Development on May 23 in Washington D.C..

Meyerstein gave the business perspective on the challenges associated with achieving sustainable development and poverty reduction in low- and middle-income countries. The panel touched on a wide range of topics, including how metrics and indicators help civil society engage with the broader SDG process, which goals play a vital role in poverty reduction, which kinds of partnerships can be the most effective towards achieving the SDGs, and how the international community will fund and implement the UN’s ambitious goals.

Other panelists included Adolfo Lopez-Claros, director of the Global Indicators Group of the World Bank Group and Casey Dunning, senior policy analyst at the Center for Global Development.

USCIB has played a central role in marshaling business support for sustainable development. In September 2015, USCIB officially launched its well-received Business for 2030 web portal, a catalog of business engagement that showcases the private sector’s contributions to the SDGs. Business for 2030 features over 140 initiatives from 35 companies in over 150 countries of how businesses are helping to achieve 72 of the 169 SDG targets.

In addition to educating the business community about the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs, the website highlights concrete initiatives and public-private partnerships to inspire renewed trust in the private sector, and to catalyze sustained and active business engagement in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Through its blog and Twitter presence, the site also targets business perspectives to the UN community to sensitize them to business views on SDG priorities and implementation.

Business for 2030 features hundreds of case studies of business contributions to sustainable development through the filter of the SDGs. Three USCIB members – Dupont, Mastercard and Qualcomm – have contributed case studies under the End Poverty goal.

USCIB will host a webinor on Bretton Woods II, New America’s multi-stakeholder platform for reducing global volatility, which will take place Wednesday, March 23 from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. EST. This will be the third webinar in the USCIB Corporate Responsibility series; please see below for further information on the series.

To register, please fill out the registration form here.

The non-partisan BWII, led by Tomicah Tilleman, is working with a large coalition of organizations – including the White House, the World Bank, McKinsey, Gates Foundation, and a range of long-term asset holders – to demonstrate that large long-term financial actors (institutional investors like pension funds and sovereign wealth funds) can significantly increase their long-term returns by dedicating a percentage of their holdings to investments that address root causes of volatility, i.e. poverty, corruption, poor governance and the lack of rule of law. Such directed investments can also improve investment climates in countries throughout the world in ways that have a multiplying effect for multinational enterprises. BWII also presents an opportunity for companies with unique competencies to lend their talents to this important endeavor.

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Tomicah Tillemann is a leader in the fields of social impact, civic innovation, and diplomacy. He currently serves as Senior Fellow and Director of New America’s Bretton Woods II.

Between 2010 and 2014, Tillemann served under Hillary Clinton and John Kerry as the Secretary of State’s Senior Advisor for Civil Society and Emerging Democracies. Tillemann led a team of experts that operated like venture capitalists in translating promising ideas and technologies into successful foreign policy. He also established and chaired the State Department’s Global Philanthropy Working Group and the State Department’s Federal Advisory Committee on civil society.

Tillemann joined the State Department in 2009 as Secretary Clinton’s speechwriter and collaborated with her on over 200 speeches. Previously, he spent four years on the professional staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as an advisor to Chairmen Joe Biden and John Kerry. Tillemann’s other professional experience includes work with the White House, five U.S. Senate and Congressional campaigns, Reuters New Media, and the World Bank.

Tillemann is a co-holder of four patents on advanced clean technologies and a co-founder of IRIS Engines. He serves on the Advisory Board of BitFury, the world’s largest provider of blockchain infrastructure, and has helped launch and lead numerous civil society organizations and foundations. He received his B.A. magna cum laude from Yale University and holds a Ph.D. with distinction from the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University (SAIS). He has lectured at Yale and Princeton and testified repeatedly before Congress. He is a frequent guest on the BBC, NPR, and other news outlets.

Over the past several years the Obama administration has engaged the government of Myanmar to advance a range of political reforms aimed at strengthening the country’s rule of law and economy. Steps taken by the United States to normalize relations with Myanmar, including lifting an import ban, have brought tangible benefits to the people of Myanmar as well as to American companies, who have made positive contributions to Myanmar society through their high standards of corporate social responsibility.

On February 18, USCIB joined four other business groups urging U.S. cabinet officials not to renew sanctions against Myanmar in light of the country’s recent democratic reforms. Myanmar held elections last year that neutral observers noted were free and fair. Given this progress, the U.S. business community believes expanded economic relations with Myanmar are appropriate. Remaining sanctions should be eliminated, the business groups argued, because they create uncertainty for investors.

“The remaining U.S. sanctions are a significant reason why U.S. investment in Myanmar remains modest and Myanmar entrepreneurs cannot truly take advantage of their putative access to the American market,” USCIB and the other groups said in a statement. “By contrast, virtually all other countries that had previously maintained sanctions against Myanmar have removed them entirely, placing U.S. companies who wish to invest in Myanmar or otherwise support engagement at a unique disadvantage.”

The statement concludes that not renewing sanctions against Myanmar would signal the beginning of a new relationship with a country that has made substantial progress toward improved governance and the rule of law.

In order to run companies successfully, business leaders must have an awareness of human rights and corporate social responsibility issues and an understanding of how to confront them. For the second year in a row, USCIB has partnered with the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights to offer first-year MBA students a paid opportunity to work at a multinational company on a business and human rights challenge during their summer. USCIB is inviting member companies to participate in the fellowship program that matches talented NYU Stern MBA students interested in corporate responsibility with USCIB members willing to provide a hands-on summer internship opportunity.

The deadline to apply is February 29, 2016. This year’s participating USCIB members include Facebook, New Balance, Newmont Mining and PepsiCo. All applicants will go through at least two rounds of interviews. First, a number of qualified NYU Stern MBA students will be selected by the Center from a general pool through an application and interview process. Applications of initially selected candidates will then be forwarded to participating companies so they can select which candidates they would like to meet for a second round interview. Each company will be able to make the final decision as to which candidate, if any, to extend an offer.

Last year, two fellows interned with USCIB members PepsiCo and DirectTV Latin America. The fellows discuss their experiences in blog posts here and here, as well as in the video below:

The fellows had very substantive experiences, completing tasks through their internships that contributed directly to key business operations and strategy in the area of CSR, sustainability and human rights