KARACHI – The UN Global Compact Network Pakistan organized the GCNP SDG Summit Pakistan under the theme “Elevating ambition in Pakistan for greater collective action on SDGs” during which multiple panel sessions were held to reflect official prequel event of the UN Global Compact Leaders’ Summit 2021.
In the first business session on “Unstoppable Women” co-hosted with Interloop, Ms. Sadia Naveed, Deputy Managing Director, EBM was the keynote speaker while the panel session included Ms. Tara Uzra Dawood, CEO Ladies Fund, Ms. Aliza Ayaz, UN Youth Ambassador & Chair Climate Action, Zareen Qureshi, Executive Director Charter for Compassion Pakistan, Huma Adnan, Fashion Designer – Visionary – Entrepreneur & CEO Funk Asia and Iftikhar Butt, CEO Momentum Logistics (Pvt.) Limited. This session highlighted the importance of Gender Equality and recognized the strong women who are role models for the society due to their determination to walk on the high road of success.
In the next session Ms. Fatima Fahad Malik and Iqra Bawany talked about Cohort that has been launched to promote Girl 2030: Breaking Barriers for Girls and invited companies to fully support the program. The next session on “The Future is Now! Gen Z- this is our Time” which was Co Hosted with English Biscuits Manufacturers, gave the floor to the youth for sharing their inspirational stories of challenges and opportunities in entrepreneurship. The panel comprised of Salman Tariq, Entrepreneur & Co-founder Davaam Life, Zehrish Khanzadi, Program Manager, Gender Interactive Alliance, Sarfaraz Hussain, Co-Founder YPay Financial Service, Muskan Siraj Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer at Sewistic, Saad Allahwala, Director the Startup Grind, and Shirin Mehri, Program Manager, Pakistan Business Council.
The Power Session with seniors from Industries included Firzan Hashim, Executive Director Asia Pacific Alliance for Disaster Management, Atif Bin Arif, Co-Founder & CEO MyGhar Technologies, and Aaminah Saeed, DGM Marketing in the panel. The discussion gave a strong message to the future generation on their promises to make the world a better place to live in. The session on “Climate Action: Net Zero” co-hosted with PARCO was addressed by Salman Zakir, Head of Communication who highlighted the efforts made by PARCO in achieving the goal on Climate Action. Dr. Ayaz Hussain from Child Field Office UNICEF speaking on the “Pakistan Context in Reshaping the Narrative” described the initiatives taken by UNICEF in promoting children’s rights and called upon the private sector to play their positive role for improving the child narrative in Pakistan.
In the concluding session “Living the Global Compact” Best Practices Sustainability Awards 2020 were conferred on the winning companies. In the multinational category the first prize was shared by Nestle and Indus Motors while the second and third prizes were won by Careem and Archroma respectively. In the Large National category the first prize was co-shared by PARCO and ENGRO. The second prize was shared by Sadaqat Ltd and Artistic Fabrics while the third prize was shared by Interloop and PPL. In the Medium National Category, the first prize won by Hub-Pak Salt, second prize was co-shared by EBM & Hi-Tech and third prize won by Agriauto. Recognition shields were also given to Siddiqsons and Bulleh Shah.
Dr. Zubair Anwar Bawany, Deputy Executive Director GCNP, moderated the Panel Sessions while Ms. Nuzhat Jahan, Secretary General GCNP, moderated the Award Distribution Ceremony. Zaki Ahmed, Vice President EFP & Chairperson GCNP Award Committee presented a vote of thanks.
Earlier the participants walked through the SDG and UNGC Principles pathway and showed their commitment to SDGs by signing the pledge wall. Rajby Industries, Interloop Private Ltd and Alchemy who recently became UNGC signatories signed the Global Compact Charter to show their commitment to support and promote UNGC Principles. The event was attended by representatives of business enterprises, chambers and associations, academia, government, NGOs, civil society and UNICEF.
