• Collaboration to spur private sector action to achieve the Global Goals by 2030
  • Alliance further enhances the United Nations’ participation at Expo 2020 Dubai

DUBAI/NEW YORK:– Expo 2020 Dubai and the United Nations Global Compact are joining forces to hold a Sustainable Development Goals Business Forum during Expo’s Global Goals Week (16-22 January 2022), to unite businesses and spur further action towards a sustainable and inclusive future.

Announced today at this year’s UN Global Compact Leaders Summit, the collaboration reflects a shared and urgent commitment to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and drive meaningful change.

Spotlighting the work of the UN Global Compact – the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative – the business forum will examine how the global community can foster economic prosperity for all, while ensuring the SDGs are achieved by the 2030 deadline. Dubai Chamber of Commerce, Official Business Integrator of Expo 2020 Dubai, will co-curate this and all other themed business forums throughout the six-month mega event.

The collaboration will leverage the presence of more than 200 international participants at Expo 2020 to encourage a new wave of UN Global Compact membership participation and drive progress towards sustainable and inclusive economic growth, in line with the UN Global Compact's mission to accelerate the collective impact of business at a global scale by upholding the Ten Principles and delivering the SDGs through accountable companies and enabling ecosystems.

Nadia Verjee, Chief of Staff, Expo 2020 Dubai, said: “Our collaboration with the United Nations Global Compact is another milestone in Expo’s wider relationship with the UN. It builds on our shared commitment to strategic action, collaboration and innovation to advance the SDGs and exemplifies Expo 2020’s mission to bring the world together to create a better future for people and planet.

“Sustainable growth is at the heart of the UAE’s strategic vision and underpins Expo 2020’s entire philosophy, before during and after the event. It cuts across Expo in all manner of ways, from highlighting how countries are placing sustainable development at the core of their strategies, exhibitions and programming, to actively engaging, informing and inspiring millions of visitors to make a conscious difference in how they live their lives.”

Aiming to be one of the most sustainable, inclusive World Expos in history, Expo 2020 has aligned its sustainability strategy with the SDGs, working with International Participants, commercial partners, stakeholders, and its entire supply chain to embed sustainability and inclusion into the physical site, the pavilion designs, and event operations.

Going beyond the environmental aspects of sustainability, Expo’s Better Together worker welfare strategy will leave a lasting legacy of change in the Middle East construction industry, while its policy of ‘one nation, one pavilion’ ensures that all countries, large or small, have an equal chance to participate and benefit from the opportunities associated with the global event. This commitment to building long-term, sustainable and equitable growth also extends to the wider Expo family, and many of Expo 2020’s Commercial Partners are already participants of the UN Global Compact.

The collaboration with the UN Global Compact also highlights the strength of the combined convening power of World Expos and the close relationship between the UAE, Expo 2020 and the UN. Just as the UN Global Compact brings together more than 12,000 companies and 3,000 non-business stakeholders, Expo 2020 will unite more than 200 participants, including 190-plus nations, as well as businesses, multilateral organisations and educational institutions, to form meaningful partnerships that can impact global change in an unprecedented way. 

Dan Thomas, Chief of Communications & Strategic Events, UN Global Compact, said: “We are pleased to partner with Expo 2020 to engage more companies in driving the SDGs. We will use this opportunity to encourage more business leaders to set ambitious, measurable targets for sustainability. Tangible progress is essential for a just, inclusive and sustainable recovery from COVID-19 and to avert the climate and inequality crises that can hold human progress back if left unaddressed.

The UN announced its Expo 2020 participation in October 2019 and has already partnered on a number of cross-cutting thought leadership platforms. Its dedicated pavilion at Expo 2020, under the theme ‘We the Peoples: Shaping Our Future Together’, is an opportunity to engage millions of visitors from around the world and inspire action around the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Running from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022 and coinciding with the 50-year anniversary of the founding of the UAE, Expo 2020 will bring the world together, creating an open, global dialogue that looks to the future. Millions of visitors from across the globe will be invited join the making of a new world, as they discover life-changing innovations that will have a meaningful, positive impact on both people and planet.

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About Expo 2020 Dubai

From 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022, Expo 2020 Dubai will welcome visitors from every corner of the globe to join the making of a new world, as it brings together the planet in one place to reimagine tomorrow.

  • With the purpose of ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’, Expo 2020 will be the world’s most impactful global incubator for new ideas, catalysing an exchange of new perspectives and inspiring action to deliver real-life solutions to real-world challenges
  • Expo 2020 will provide a visually striking, intellectually enlightening and emotionally inspiring 182 days, as more than 200 participants – including nations, multilateral organisations, businesses, and educational institutions, as well as millions of visitors – create the largest and most diverse World Expo ever
  • Expo 2020’s sub-themes of Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability will inspire visitors to preserve and protect our planet, explore new frontiers and build a better future for everyone
  • Expo is committed to building a more equitable and just world for everyone, while keeping visitors safe by following the latest guidance of the world’s leading medical, science and health experts
  • Expo 2020 is the first World Expo to take place in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region, located on a 4.38 sqkm site adjacent to Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai South
  • Built with a meaningful and measurable long-term legacy in mind, the Expo site will transform into District 2020 – a model global community that will rethink the cities of the future – after Expo 2020 closes its doors

How to cover Expo 2020 Dubai in person at event time or report on the event remotely 

To attend Expo 2020 or cover Expo 2020 remotely using content and assets generated by Expo, you must be accredited.

To kick off your journey with Expo 2020, please ensure that you:

Tawassul is regularly updated, providing the latest content assets, including press releases, photographs, audio and video, the electronic media kit, and information on broadcast and photography operations. It also provides you with important information and updates on facilities and services such as media accreditation, visa information for international accredited media, and permits. Access to other media-related systems (Media Asset Management System and Media Bookings System), which will be launched in Q2 2021, will only be permitted to accredited media (see below). Information about these systems can be found on Tawassul.

  • Once registered, submit an Expo 2020 Media Accreditation expression of interest.

Within this expression of interest, please appoint an Accreditation Liaison Officer (ALO) from within your organisation who will act as the single point of contact with Expo 2020 for media accreditation. Following this, approved media organisations will be provided login details and instructions for the accreditation system to enable them to submit applications.

For support, contact Expo 2020 Dubai’s Media Services team at media.services@expo2020.ae  or +971 (0)56 689 2101.
Visit: www.expo2020dubai.com 

About World Expos

In 1851 the Crystal Palace was the centrepiece of London’s Great Exhibition – the first World Expo. It celebrated the man-made industrial wonders of a rapidly changing world. Architecture, contents and a theme, ‘Industry of All Nations’, were combined to create a big idea of nations meeting nations in shared technological and commercial progress. In more recent years, participants in World Expos, including governments, international organisations and companies, have gathered to find solutions to universal challenges and to promote their achievements, products, ideas, innovations, their national brand, and their nations as destinations for tourism, trade and investment.

World Expos are held under the auspices of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the intergovernmental organisation responsible for overseeing and regulating international exhibitions (‘Expos’) and for fostering their core values of Education, Innovation and Cooperation. Today, four types of Expos are organised under the BIE’s auspices: World Expos, Specialised Expos, Horticultural Expos and the Triennale di Milano.

For media enquiries, please contact:
Press Office                                                                                    
On call contact                                                                                   
Email: press.office@expo2020.ae                                                   
Tel: +971 56 688 9509                                                                  
P.O. Box 2020, Dubai, UAE                                                                

About United Nations Global Compact

As a special initiative of the UN Secretary-General, the United Nations Global Compact is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with Ten Principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Our ambition is to accelerate and scale the global collective impact of business by upholding the Ten Principles and delivering the Sustainable Development Goals through accountable companies and ecosystems that enable change. With more than 12,000 companies and 3,000 non-business signatories based in over 160 countries, and 69 Local Networks, the UN Global Compact is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative — one Global Compact uniting business for a better world.

For more information, follow @globalcompact on social media and visit our website at  www.unglobalcompact.org    

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© Press Release 2021

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