Author: PATRICK ALUSHULA, Sunday Nation

Nairobi is gearing up for an inaugural summit to rally private sector businesses to deepen their role as catalysts for economic and societal progress through profitable and sustainable business models.

The 2024 Africa Shared Value (ASV) and ESG Summit, emerging from a partnership between the Africa Shared Value Leadership Summit and the ESG Africa Conference, is scheduled for October 24-25 in Nairobi at Radisson Blu Hotel, Upper Hill.

Tiekie Barnard, chairperson of the ASV & ESG Summit said the event will provide a call-to-action platform for leaders to engage in discussions about integrating Shared Value principles with Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives.

She said the forum would have speakers from diverse sectors to lead in charting a course towards a future where Africa’s business growth and societal well-being are pursued as seamlessly interconnected and not as parallel goals.

“ESG has been top of mind for everybody, from an investor perspective to a reporting perspective. We as Shared Value advocates believe that Shared Value is the precursor to ESG reporting. So the dream was to bring the two together.

Mrs. Barnard is also the founder and CEO of Shared Value Africa (SVA) and Shift Impact Africa. SVA started on May 25th 2018, to rally the private sector to adopt business management concept of Creating Shared Value, which is about firms generating profits while at the same time addressing societal and environmental issues.

SVA has been running the annual Africa Shared Value Leadership Summit to get business leaders to think about society and the environment as they generate profits. However, SVA is collaborating with ESG Africa Conference for the inaugural ASV & ESG Summit this year.

This will be the second time for the SVA forum to be in Kenya. The last one was in 2019, then running as Africa Shared Value Leadership Summit.
Ms. Barnard underscored the need to incorporate ESG in shared value summit, noting that it holds the key to attracting investors from Africa and beyond to deliver the much-needed inclusive growth.

“As organisations, if we cannot report on what our impact from a societal and environmental perspective is, then our investors cannot see what we are and what our impact is from an organizational perspective. We really have to take responsibility as businesses,” said Ms Barnard.

The theme for the 2024 summit is ‘Empowering Africa’s Future: Shaping the Next Generation of Responsible Businesses,’ which the organisers say will spotlight the continent’s pressing needs such as economic growth, sustainable futures, entrepreneurship, climate action, technology and gender equality.

The summit will reiterate the need for the private sector to take charge in shaping the future of Africa by tagging the society and environment along their search for profits, not viewing this as a governmental responsibility.

“It is the private sector which has the resources and the ability to move a lot quicker than the government can. They can help to shape the future from an African context. I believe that Africa is where we are building the global future,” she said.

The forum organisers have sourced over 25 thought leaders from across the continent and beyond to explore the key topics with the aim of challenging small, medium and large-sized businesses to integrate ESG at all levels of their operations.

“From a credibility and sustainability perspective, we have to install the principles and practices of doing good business right from the ground up. When you are creating a young business, part of the consideration has to be how you are going to create value for all,” she said.