For a decade now on the docket, Judy Njino has actively contributed and influenced the future of sustainable practices not only in Kenya but also in the Middle East and North Africa region.
She was appointed the United Nations Global Compact, Kenya Executive Director in 2013, and started off a one-woman show, with 60 signatory companies and has grown to 300 and counting.
With this, she has positioned the organization as a platform that mobilises business support to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth.
“Coming in, I had to put in the structure in matters of governance and value proposition, in order to incorporate our signatories align their business strategy to the universal values focusing on human right, anti-corruption, environment, and labour,” she said.
The soft-spoken leader noted that there is a lot more education on sustainability that needs to be done to the public, in order for solutions to be met in the global challenges.
To raise awareness on matters of sustainability, Njino says there are programs put in place that are geared towards ensuring that companies take action.
“With the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda, we have issues like climate action, which is an emergency we need to address, and if we will need to keep the global temperature below 1.5 degrees Celsius, we need companies to decarbonise at a very fast rate,” Njino said.
The organization also does a lot of ‘hand-holding’ with other companies to ensure they benchmark across borders and learn on matters of sustainability.
She, however, noted that the country is moving in the right direction in the area of clean energy.
In engaging the local communities to ensure sustainability initiatives are effective, Njino noted that there is a lot of dialogue that goes on to find the solution to the raised issues within a certain pattern.
“We look at sustainability as a partnership issue, we ensure our signatories take responsibility and engage in constructive discussions to find the best possible solution not only for the business but also for aggrieved parties.”
According to Njino, to measure the impact of sustainability in a vast and diverse region, she says the organization looks at the matter, beyond compliance, which are the national laws.
“It is important for us to anchor our works at the country level that are responsible for helping businesses in a different country to understand what cooperate sustainability means in a local context,” she said.
“We look at the impact on the level of SDGs, in matters of whether we are seeing progress, like for example in Kenya, where we had to come up with an initiative in matters corruption.”
In matters of corruption, Njino noted that the network together with other partners fronted a proposal to Retired President Uhuru Kenyatta that binds private companies to also be incorporated in the anti-corruption law.
“Previously, there were laws within the private sector it was only targeted the public sector and public officials. This was our own initiative to clear the business environment.”
“There is so much more that needs to be done, but critically, to get where we need to be by 2030, which is the deadline for SDGs, but we are not doing enough,” she noted.
UN Global Compact Kenya, incorporates innovation and technology in the addressing SDGs, through digital investment to ensure that all member companies and the public access required resources and training.
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