SDG Pioneers are business leaders who have demonstrated progress and commitment towards advancing the Sustainable Development Goals
Accra, Ghana, 18 June 2021 – The United Nations Global Compact on Wednesday recognised Robert Okine of Bewsys as one of ten 2021 SDG Pioneers.
SDG Pioneers are business leaders selected by the UN Global Compact for doing an exceptional job to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the implementation of the UN Global Compact Ten Principles on human rights, environment, labor, and anti-corruption.
This year’s global search focused on professionals working at any level in a company participating in the UN Global Compact and the winners selected come from every continent.
This honor comes in recognition of Robert Okine’s work to advance gender equality and inclusion, his commitment in showcasing how business can be a force for good and in taking action on sustainable development issues. Bewsys has been a participant of the UN Global Compact since 2017. To learn more about Robert Okine, please visit his page on the UN Global Compact website https://unglobalcompact.org/sdgs/sdgpioneers/2021/okine .
“Business has a critical role to play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals at a time when progress has been set back by the Covid-19 pandemic. These ten exceptional professionals show exactly what can be done by business to make a difference that not only serves shareholders but also society at large. I hope our ten 2021 SDG Pioneers will also inspire others to join them in uniting business for a better world,” said Sanda Ojiambo, CEO & Executive Director of the UN Global Compact.
The SDG Pioneer entries were judged by an expert panel composed of previous SDG Pioneers and representatives from the UN Global Compact Expert Network, academia, and UN agencies. The selection criteria included the individuals’ commitment to embedding the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact into their companies’ core strategies, their efforts to advance the SDGs, as well as their engagement with the UN Global Compact and its Local Networks. The 2021 SDG Pioneers were announced during the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit 2021 on 16 June.
Bewsys which stands for Better World Systems has developed unique solutions incorporating social protection, good governance, monitoring and compliance, agriculture, and education in 61 developing countries with limited data infrastructure in Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Oceania.
The projects have included social protection digital solutions that expanded social, humanitarian, and economic relief for more than two million women and children in the African countries of Lesotho, Ghana, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In Somalia, Bewsys solutions have supported building safe communities by helping in the process of tracing, detecting, and destroying landmines in post-conflict recovery areas.
Bewsys also served as a consultant to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU) to develop blueprints for a medical regulatory information management system harmonization in African countries.
Within Bewsys, Okine has prioritized awareness and operational alignment to the SDGs through mandatory and targeted education across functions and seniority levels. He created a team to engage with the UN Global Compact’s SDG Ambition Accelerator program to enhance initiatives and processes of measuring the company’s SDG targets, and he leads its impact assessment adoption to develop actionable targets for developing its business strategy. Inclusion, economic development and labour and human rights are critical in evaluating all business decisions, he says.
“Better World Systems is a reminder that no matter who we are, what we do or where we are, we can leverage what we have to transform the world,” Okine says. “I am proud that Bewsys can make a sustainable difference in the lives of millions of people globally.”