17 May 2012: In an op-ed titled “Global Governance Talk vs. African Reality” and carried by the online magazine The Globalist and the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) website, Kandeh Yumkella, Director General, UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), writes that inclusive growth, equity and fairness must be central to both discussions and actions on the global governance of sustainability.

Writing in the run-up to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), Yumkella emphasized that, in order for sustainability to be manifested throughout the world, its key principle must be spreading prosperity to the poor, stating “we cannot afford to view the relationship between governance and sustainability without also paying heed to access to opportunity for all the world’s citizens.” On equity and fairness, he called for companies, especially those in the energy sector, to adopt global standards for social responsibility. Noting imbalances in reactions of oil companies to spills and oil-related pollution around the world, he said the “same environmental rules should apply off the coast of Alaska, in the Gulf of Mexico, and in the Niger Delta.”

On inclusiveness and growth, he said “what Africa needs is not charity, but trade and solid industrial strategies. What Africans really want is actual wealth creation, beyond primary commodities” and called for more opportunities to access finance for the continent. [SE4ALL Press Release] [Globalist Op-Ed]