During the ISAR 35th session that took place from 24 to 26 October 2018 at the Palais des Nations, in Geneva UNCTAD has launched a new initiative entitled “ISAR Honours”. The objective of the “ISAR Honours” is to raise awareness and facilitate dissemination of national and international best practices on sustainability and SDG reporting as an integral of annual reporting by companies. The Initiative aims to support efforts on enhancing the quality and comparability of companies’ reporting on their contribution to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and its usefulness for monitoring the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The ISAR Honours recognizes policy, institutional or capacity-building initiatives that encourage and assist enterprises to publish data on their contribution to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable; facilitate improvements in companies’ reporting on sustainability issues, including by promoting the integration of sustainability information, such as environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, into companies’ reporting cycle.
It is expected that the ISAR Honours will contribute to developing national case studies on the SDG reporting by companies, enhancing stakeholder dialogue on these issues, and facilitating reporting by countries on the SDG 12.6.1 “Number of companies publishing sustainability reports”.