The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) called for submissions on the second and final draft of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Impact Standards for Enterprises (the Standards). 

These Standards have been categorised into four key foundational elements which also include accompanying practical practice indicators to help guide enterprise.

• Standard 1 – strategy 
• Standard 2 – Management approach 
• Standard 3 – Transparency 
• Standard 4 – Governance 

In our 28 May 2021 submission, we focused on the following key points:

• We support the important work bring undertaken by UNDP on SDG impact and see the Standards as an essential building block towards enterprises considering sustainable development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their strategy and decision making as well as providing meaningful SDG engagement which can be easily identified by users of enterprise disclosure.  
• The Standards are very comprehensive and, as a result, may be overwhelming for some organisations. The consultation draft states that ‘enterprises are encouraged to use the Standards in their entirety as a gap analysis and self-assessment tool, and to fill gaps and improve practice over time’. The resources required and time taken to undertake this exercise will vary depending on the size and structure of an enterprise. Further, the application of the Standards will differ between varying organisational types and structures, for example a multi-national, based in different countries with different strategies compared to a small not for profit. As such we encourage the UNDP to consider stepped implementation guidance that outlines how the standards could apply to different organisational sizes and structures.  
• Stepped guidance to the Standards could potentially avoid a retrofit approach or a ‘tick box’ exercise for enterprises to achieve SDG compliance. 
• We re-iterate the vital role the accounting profession has to play in contributing towards the achievement of the SDGs. We encourage the UNDP to engage in conversations with corporate reporting organisations and public practice, which will be crucial for facilitating widespread uptake as well as enhancing stakeholder confidence of the Standards.