Sustainability - Finding solutions in the face of adversity

The KZN floods caused much havoc on infrastructure, making travelling anywhere in KZN an absolute nightmare. Most companies have started moving back to an in-office or hybrid working environment, increasing the traffic flow and leading to further delays on the road. However, most people still managed to get to work, and businesses continued to operate despite all odds.

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The latest, additional increases in fuel and food prices, coupled with stage 6 load shedding, are genuinely starting to test our resilience.

If middle-income earners feel the pinch, it’s hard to ignore the added strains of the low-income and poor population.

What are the solutions that we can explore to overcome this debacle?

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The answers we seek certainly need to involve collaboration, practical implementation, and notably, accountability.

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In 2015, South Africa adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development founded by the United Nations, which aims to alleviate poverty and promote peace and prosperity for all.

At this plan's core, there are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development (un.org)) that allow all participating countries to track their progress along the way.

 In 2017, Cape Town led the pack. It launched the Cape Town Global Action Plan for Sustainable Development Data, which included methods for collecting and converting data to accurately communicate progress towards meeting the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).

In 2019 a country Report was launched containing all available indicators supported by a visual presentation in The Global Tracker Platform. By the same year, South Africa had shown improvement with some indicators within all 17 goals.

Progress was slowed by the covid-19 pandemic, natural disasters and the war in Ukraine that caused significant supply chain shortages.

However, in April of this year, South Africa signed the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) to get back on track towards achieving the SDGs.

Our country has many strengths that can be utilised to overcome our existing weaknesses, such as harnessing our increasing young population to pave the way towards promoting a mindset of equality rather than perpetuating past discrimination.

Finance and Accounting professionals are also in a vital position to build the bridge between embracing the UNSDGs, steering sustainability initiatives and effectively monitoring and communicating results.

Accounting associations such as the ACCA have committed to the UNSDGs internally. They have partnered with other associations such as Prime Global to work on several projects addressing talent-related challenges. SAICA has also called on all of its members to ‘adopt’ SDGs in helping the world reach the SDG’s by 2030.

The recent events and collaboration toward common goals provide much hope for building a better tomorrow and creating sustainability in the face of these adversities.