A world of difference
Events this year have shown how the UN’s SDGs are more vital than ever. Andrew White, Associate Dean for Executive Education, explains how these aims dovetail with Oxford Saïd’s ethically focused executive education programmes
The deadline for countries to achieve the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) is just a decade away. By 2030, it’s hoped the governments of the 193 countries that signed the blueprint — agreeing to end poverty and hunger, protect the planet and achieve gender and racial equality — in New York in 2015 will have made these targets a reality. The support of the corporate world is crucial if the UN is to achieve that. If companies seemed sluggish to integrate the goals into their business plans — a UN report earlier this year found only four in 10 firms had targets to meet the SDGs by 2030 — then the events of 2020 have seemingly hastened that urgency.
‘If anything, SDG issues have been accelerated this year,’ says Andrew White, Associate Dean for Executive Education at Saïd Business School. ‘There are many changes that will come about in the way companies operate. The Black Lives Matter movement has forced companies to think differently, highlighting the importance of goal number 10, which calls to reduce inequalities.’
White says Covid-19 has also changed the way business is conducted — aligning with the SDG of combating the climate crisis. ‘There’s been a mass reduction in carbon as a result of lockdown, with all of us suddenly going to Zoom or Teams. But business had to keep functioning and the world has continued to operate. It showed what we can do with technology substituting the need for travel.’
Many corporate leaders believe Covid-19 is a chance to remodel business with socially responsible values. In June, Unilever and HSBC bosses were among 150 who signed a letter urging Boris Johnson to put SDGs at the heart of the UK’s recovery plans. ‘Businesses are focusing on survival, so SDGs might not be a priority,’ says White. ‘But it’s definitely a wake-up call: how do they cope with disruptive change?’
ADDING SDG VALUES
SDG values are also increasingly conspicuous in the many online executive education programmes at Oxford Saïd. ‘The SDGs are deeply embedded into what we do,’ says White, who has been in his current role at the School since 2010. ‘There is a lot of SDG activity in the content of our courses and it continues to rise up the agenda.’
Producing the social entrepreneurs of the future has long been a focus. In 2013, the School launched the successful Impact Investing Programme, which equips participants with investment skills to help address social problems, particularly in developing countries.
Impact Investing was one of six executive education courses offered online for the first time in the past academic year. Many are skewed towards SDG issues; the School’s Women’s Leadership Development and the Social Finance Programmes both went online. The latter lets participants learn how purpose-driven leadership can tackle problems such as climate change or gender equality, and explains how blended capital — where public or philanthropic donations are used to boost private sector investment in SDG related projects — can help fill the annual UN SDG gap of $2.5tn.
AI SOLUTIONS
The use of AI can play a role in solving environmental and social challenges. In January 2020, the School launched the Oxford Initiative on AIxSDGs, which aims to support policymakers, especially those working in sustainable development, to help tackle global problems using AI, and to create a network of socially responsible AI projects. It will, however, take an analytical and critical approach to AI, focusing on the ethical and societal questions it raises.
‘Issues around how AI is developing are of real concern at the moment,’ says White. ‘An Oxford view doesn’t just understand the technology but also its societal impact, its intended and unintended consequences, and the ethics around these technologies. What are we embedding in these systems?’ Oxford Saïd’s relationships with the SDGs extends far beyond its educational offerings. In March, the 2020 World Happiness Report was published. The annual report, which ranks countries according to happiness (Finland claimed top spot for the third year running), is produced by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and co-edited by Jan-Emmanuel de Neve, Associate Professor of Economics and Strategy. Its key findings, such as high-income countries being able to increase their happiness by focusing on sustainable development, were widely reported.
The report was released just before the School shifted tuition online in response to Covid-19. While the transition from physical to online learning was disruptive for many universities. the School’s decision to launch online courses for executive education in 2017 meant some of its portfolio of courses could be delivered unimpeded. ‘It was a big challenge to move what was on campus to a virtual environment, but we were so grateful we made that decision because it’s been the one part of the business unaffected by lockdown,’ says White.
The new academic year will see a slew of new executive education programmes launched online, such as Leading Sustainable Corporations. The six-week course, starting in January 2021, gives leaders the skills to incorporate environmental, social and governance strategies into their organisation — often the first step to adopting further SDG-like ambitions.
‘Universities had to undergo huge changes to digitise their offer because of Covid-19, but one potential upside is that it reduces dependence on room capacity, faculty time and travel,’ says White. ‘Moving to digital platforms means you’re left with a set of assets much less constrained in terms of their impact on the world. For example, it could accelerate the amount of digital education that’s distributed to places that have trouble accessing content, such as sub-Saharan Africa or parts of Asia. It’s a short-term pain in terms of the adjustment but offers much long-term potential.’
WORDS: CHRISTIAN KOCH
PHOTOGRAPHY: SHUTTERSTOCK
