LONDON, February 2020: Leading social entrepreneurs and social innovators from around the world came together this week to identify a path forward to accelerate progress on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Catalyst 2030, which launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, seeks bold and breakthrough approaches to meeting the 2030 deadline for the SDGs.

Reports indicate that at the current rate of execution, the SDGs will miss their deadline of 2030 by 64 years (2094), unleashing a disastrous world for the bottom one billion global inhabitants who are categorised as extremely poor. The timing could not be more urgent. We have a limited and crucial time horizon to act quickly, decisively and collectively.

Catalyst 2030 is a collaborative movement of leading social entrepreneurs (SE) along with funders and intermediaries from across the globe. More than 130 SE’s representing Ashoka, Echoing Green, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, the Skoll Foundation and others from some of the most prestigious global networks of social entrepreneurs have joined forces to build a broad multi-stakeholder movement to change systems that underpin poverty and the destruction of ecosystems. According to surveys, this group alone is estimated to serve 800 million people globally.

Jeroo Billimoria, a spokesperson and co-founder of Catalyst 2030 commented, “We are a group of ‘avant garde’ social entrepreneurs coming together with humility, but committing to a quantum leap to achieving the SDGs by the 2030 deadline.” Together, Catalyst 2030’s aim is to drive a significant dent in the climate crisis, the reduction of poverty and to leave a lasting and positive impact on the lives of many millions through systems change approaches and financing.

Leveraging their ability to work with the poorest and marginalised sections of society in conservation with nature, the Catalyst 2030 initiative seeks to share best practices from across various sectors and countries, co-create the overall strategic roadmap for catalytic transformation, identify collaborative areas of work and challenge the current approaches to institutional funding.

“For us to realistically accelerate our efforts, we need to listen and be led by people who understand how climate change and inequality affect people directly and have demonstrated that alternatives exist to our extractive, unequal economy,” said Dr Francois Bonnici, Head, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. “Catalyst 2030 presents us with this opportunity.”

Cheryl Dorsey, President of Echoing Green added “To truly unlock the potential of communities to achieve the SDGs more quickly and sustainably, collective action borne of humility, trust, equitable power dynamics and an impact orientation are required. Catalyst 2030 members seek to come together and work in a new way achieve lasting positive change.”

More than 80 co-founders met last week at the Althorp Estate in Northampton, UK to craft a collective roadmap for the years ahead.

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Contact: info@Catalyst2030.net