10 November 2017
Pharmaceutical Company Reports on 11 SDG Targets
UN Photo/JC McIlwaine
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Global pharmaceutical company Merck released a corporate responsibility report utilizing the SDGs as a reporting framework, with 11 targets under 8 Goals prioritized for quantitative reporting.

UNCTAD facilitated an expert meeting ona common set of baseline indicators to align corporate reporting with the SDGs.

November 2017: Merck (MSD), a global pharmaceutical company, released a Corporate Responsibility Report for 2016/2017 that uses the SDGs and associated targets to report the company’s quantitative progress toward “improving the lives of the world’s poorest people by 2030.” While many companies are beginning to map their progress against the SDGs, with this framework Merck begins to report against 11 of the 169 SDG targets.

Merck selected eight priority SDGs that it considers “the most closely aligned to our mission.” The company used existing internal metrics to report progress on targets under its priority Goals. For example, under SDG 3 (good health and well-being), Merck prioritized target 3.1 (“Reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births”), on which it displays its progress according to the metric, ‘Women with improved access to quality care in priority countries through MSD for Mothers.’ According to the report, the number of such women was over 5.7 million in 2016, compared with 3.5 million in 2014 and 4.9 million in 2015.

The other priority SDGs for the company are: gender equality (SDG 5), clean water and sanitation (SDG 6), affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), climate action (SDG 13), and partnership for the Goals (SDG 17). In addition to progress on the prioritized SDGs, the report includes an index outlining Merck’s activities on all 17 Goals. In 2017, Merck released an updated set of environmental goals to support responsible management of its operations, supply chain, products and packaging. The company also announced efforts to develop a more diverse and inclusive workforce, with over half of new hires in 2016 being women.

Meanwhile, in Geneva, Switzerland, a group of experts gathered to discuss a common set of core baseline indicators to align corporate reporting with the SDGs. The Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting (ISAR) met from 1-3 November, facilitated by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). James Zhan, UNCTAD, said he looks forward to more businesses reporting on their inputs to the SDGs. To this end, he indicated the need for greater quality and comparability in corporate reporting on sustainability issues. This will “enable countries to gather such information from companies in a consistent and cost-effective manner to assess the private sector contributions towards the SDG implementation,” he said.

In September 2017, the UN Global Compact and partners introduced a mechanism to simplify businesses’ reporting on their contributions to the SDGs. The report finds that most firms still use older reporting standards that predate the SDGs, and notes the need for a harmonized set of indicators and methodology for corporate SDG reporting. A complementary document titled, ‘A Practical Guide to Defining Priorities and Reporting,’ will be launched in January 2018, and will provide a structured approach to help businesses prioritize and report on relevant targets.

Standardized, reliable, comparable data that is made available to everyone is also a key step outlined in Oxfam’s advice on corporate engagement with the SDGs. Oxfam also calls on companies to examine how their commercial practices can undermine progress towards the SDGs, including in areas such as sourcing and employment.

Roel Nieuwenkamp, Chair of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Working Party on Responsible Business Conduct, similarly has called on companies to prioritize their efforts “where their negative impacts on the SDGs are most severe.” [Merck SDG Reporting Framework] [UNCTAD Press Release] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on Business Reporting Methodology] [Just Food News on SDG Alignment] [OECD Development Matters Blog]

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