Sustainability Conference in Egypt: the role of communications

On its second edition, the Conference this year had the important mission to explore the different aspects of sustainability, building ground to the launching of the Business Council for Sustainable Development. With the presence of six ministers, the Federation of Egyptian Industries and the Al Orman NGO, the Council was announced with great receptivity, especially in a year full of expectations for the hosts of the COP 27.

With the presence of Professor Akhtar Badshah (picture 1), participants had the chance to reflect on purpose and exercise on how each and every one of them, with their values and strengths, could contribute to the Council and the sustainability agenda in Egypt. The successful entrepreneur Stephen Ritz (picture 2) brought a great amount energy and inspiration to develop innovative projects that can associate different aspects of this agenda, Building capacity and empowering new generations.?

But in this environment full of inspiration and purpose, how to develop this agenda and implement disruptive projects that create shared value? Many challenges and aspects were raised by the other speakers. From governmental challenges and legal aspects to education and awareness, one point is key: communications.

Inspired by the discussions held in the PROI Worldwide ESG Group, our specialist, Camila Limberg, had the opportunity to present to the participants the scenario and the different ways through which communicators help building the bridge between sustainability knowledge and the disclosure of information that the different stakeholders use to their decision-making process.

The grounding challenge to communicators is decoding this multilayer agenda. There are multiple barriers of access to information, channels and formats and willingness to change that represent challenges to communicators. From building awareness to developing a coherent narrative and communicate a clear purpose and a north to follow, communicators design strategic and creative plans so that a clear and tailored message can reach the right audiences.

Along all processes a great variety of risks emerge. Risks of not delivering the right message, risks of not engaging key stakeholders and risks of losing reputation and market share because of poor transparency practices. In this sense it is important that communicators map such risks and build their strategies based on transparency, so organizations can prevent the “washings” (practices based on the selective disclosure of information and marketing to persuade the public of correct practices) and enable connections.

From the communication of clear and transparent information is possible to build trust and bring efforts together towards sustainable development.

Great expectations already surround Egypt less than 10 months before COP27. How organizations, civil society and government are building trust and enabling partnerships to deliver shared value creation?