UNCTAD and the Department of National Planning of Colombia organized a roundtable on strengthening the sustainability reporting infrastructure in Colombia which took place virtually on 8 June 2022. The meeting featured presentations of a proposal of a sustainability reporting framework for companies in Colombia and a document including a mapping of regulators of corporate reporting and policy recommendations concerning the body in charge of sustainability/SDG reporting. After the presentations, interactive discussions were held in order to obtain feedback and build consensus.
The above-mentioned documents correspond to the first steps towards the implementation of the recommendations and activities included in the National Action Plan for high quality sustainability reporting that was developed under the Development Account 11th Tranche Project entitled Enabling policy frameworks for enterprise sustainability and SDG reporting in Africa and Latin America.
During her opening remarks Ms. Olga Lucia Romero, Director of Monitoring and Evaluation of Public Policies of the Department of National Planning (DNP), stated that the project is in line with the actions Colombia is taking towards measuring the contributions of different actors to the Sustainability Development Goals (SDG), and stressed the importance of having a better framework and reference on how these sustainability reports and contributions by the companies can be presented, and also of working side by side with all key entities, public and private, to reach the objectives of the 2030 Agenda. Then, Mr. Richard Bolwijn, Head of the Investment Research Branch, and Officer in charge of the Enterprise Branch of UNCTAD, referred to the work conducted by UNCTAD since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, on enhancing the role of enterprise reporting in assessing the contribution of the private sector to the SDG implementation by improving comparability, consistency and reliability of sustainability reporting and its alignment with the SDG indicator monitoring framework. He further stressed that, collaboration and coordination based on a multi-stakeholder dialogue is critical. And therefore, this Roundtable represents a step forward towards reinforcing Colombia’s sustainability reporting framework and promoting dialogue among regulators and supervisors of corporate reporting and other key counterparts.
The roundtable was attended by the institutions involved in the implementation of the SDGs and in the regulation and supervision of corporate reporting in Colombia including the Department of National Planning, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, the Technical Council of Public Accountancy, the Superintendency of Corporations, the Superintendency of Finance, and the General Accounting Office (CGN).
A second Roundtable to discuss a proposal to strengthen the data collection mechanism for sustainability/SDG reporting information will take place on 15 June 2022 using a virtual format.
