Women’s economic opportunities have greatly improved in the United States over past decades; however, numerous challenges remain to further reduce gender inequalities. Continued progress will require reforms such as paid parental leave, flexible working arrangements, changes in job structure and remuneration, and increased access to quality pre-school and childcare.

Ronnie Goldberg, USCIB’s senior counsel, attended an event hosted by the OECD Washington Center titled “Improving Opportunities for Women in the United States.” The event highlighted the main findings of the OECD Economic Survey of the United States on improving opportunities for women, as well as provided a platform for high-level policymakers, researchers and business leaders to share what is being done by governments and the private sector to address gender inequalities in the workplace.

The discussion took place following the White House Summit on the United State of Women. Other speakers included OECD Secretary General Angel Gurría and U.S. Ambassador to the OECD Daniel Yohannes.

Goldberg spoke at a panel on “Championing better policies for women in the workplace,” in which she talked about what companies are doing to stop the “leaking pipeline” phenomenon in which women drop out at every successive management level, leading to severe under-representation of women in corporate leadership roles.

Read the OECD Economic Survey of the United States

Over 168 million children are still trapped in child labor around the world. As supply chains have become more increasingly complex, the risk of child labor is present in all supply chains, and all enterprises must be vigilant to ensure that their supply chains are free from child labor. Because child labor occurs largely in the informal economy in areas where law enforcement is weak or absent, abuses often go undetected. Governments must step up their efforts to tackle the problem.

The theme of this year’s World Day Against Child Labor, which took place on June 12, is ending child labor in supply chains. USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson gave introductory remarks at an event titled “End Child Labor in Supply Chains: It’s Everyone’s Business,” on June 9 at UNICEF headquarters in New York. The event was hosted by the International Labor Organization (ILO), UNICEF, the United States Fund for UNICEF and the Permanent Mission of Argentina to the United Nations. Argentinian UN Ambassador Martín García Moritán gave keynote remarks on the importance of child labor eradication.

Robinson reaffirmed USCIB’s commitment to eliminating child labor. As the International Labor Organization’s (IOE) regional vice president for North America, Robinson highlighted the many ways in which employers have contributed to the fight against child labor, including the IOE-ILO Child Labor Guiddance Tool for Business and the 2007 IOE-ILO Guides for Employers on Eliminating Child Labor. USCIB has also worked to educate companies on the tools available to address child labor in supply chains, for example through a recent webinar USCIB hosted with UNICEF.

“The IOE and its member federations play an active role both within countries and internationally in combating child labor and advocating global access to education for children around the world,” Robinson said. “We view child labor, particularly in its most dangerous and exploitative forms, as intolerable both because of its inhumanity and the negative long-term consequences for the economic and social well-being of the children concerned.”

During the event, panelists discussed best practices and approaches that companies have adopted to respect children’s rights and eliminate child labor.

“Like all of you, we in the business community view this as a shared responsibility,” Robinson concluded. “Companies at all levels must work to root out child labor from their supply chains, while states must improve accountability and governance, which, I might add, has the added benefit of improving a country’s overall investment climate.”

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.