SEC receives top honors from UN for reporting anew
THE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has received another recognition from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for promoting sustainability and sustainable development goals (SDG) reporting in the Philippines.
The SEC received the reporting on their contribution for Publicly Listed Companies ISAR Honours 2022 in the to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable through Memorandum Circular national category during a ceremony Development and its No. 4, Series of 2019. held at the Palais des usefulness for monitoring the Prior to the first mandatory Nations in Geneva on November implementation of the SDGs. submission of sustainability 2, besting 45 other organizations “I would like to thank the reports, the SEC conducted from other countries. organizers of ISAR Honours a series of workshops to capacitate
It shared the stage with and accept this year’s award PLCs in the proper World Bank and International wholeheartedly with the hope preparation of their annual Finance Corporation, UN that other jurisdictions will sustainability reports. Global Compact, and World be inspired to immediately The capacity-building exercises Economic Forum, which received adopt or to continue to carry and fora were tailored the same award in the out fully their sustainable to address both sector-specific international category. practices,” SEC Chairperson and general public concerns.
The Commission previously Emilio B. Aquino said during Following the pioneer received the ISAR the ceremony. submissions in 2020, the SEC Honours 2019 for promoting “The SEC Philippines has continued the conduct of periodic sustainability and SDG reporting since been active in enforcing workshops and trainings by requiring publiclylisted its sustainability guidelines on sustainability reporting and companies (PLCs) to with the UN SDGs at its core, practices to keep PLCs up to submit sustainability reports partnering with key stakeholders date of, and provide them with annually. and conducting several a broad perspective of, the developments
The ISAR Honours recognizes capacity building programs in the sustainable policy, institutional that build on sustainability business landscape. and capacity-building initiatives, as a way of life and as a way At the outbreak of the publicly available at the forward for a more sustainable COVID-19 pandemic, the national or international level, future. We have been loud SEC conducted the workshops that encourage and assist and emphatic in saying our and trainings virtually. Forum enterprises to publish data battle cry that: Sustainability and panel type of discussions on their contribution to SDG is everyone’s responsibility.” were also held with the implementation, and that assist The UNCTAD particularly participation of esteemed resource governments in collecting recognized the workshops, persons from different such data for SDG monitoring trainings, seminars organizations. In these events, needs. and partnerships organized participants are given a wide
The award is named after by the Commission to latitude to interact with the the International Standards of increase awareness, advance resource persons. Accounting and Reporting knowledge, and build capacity The regular conduct of (ISAR), through which the in sustainability and SDG webinars, trainings, and workshops UNCTAD supports public reporting in the Philippine informs PLCs of the and PpHriOvTaOteS sceocutroterseyfoffo1r0tsth IncfoarnptoryraDteivisseioctnor, following trends and policy development to enhance the quality and the issuance of the Sustainability on sustainability reporting, comparability of companies’ Reporting Guidelines equips them with the tools to
plan for, adjust, and document their short-, medium-, and long-term goals accordingly, and capacitates them to write comprehensive and credible sustainability reports.
In the pursuit of these capacity building exercises, the SEC formed strategic partnerships with both private and public sectors, thereby reaching out to individuals and organizations who shared the same sustainability vision.
These partnerships enabled the Commission to understand better the different perspectives on sustainability initiatives from policy development to the grassroots implementation.
The number of companies reporting their environmental, social and governance impacts has increased dramatically from only around 22% of the total number of PLCs prior to 2019
to around 91% in 2020, and more than 95% in 2021.
The continuous provision of workshops and trainings on sustainability reporting is projected to result in higher number of sustainability reports submitted, and higher quality of sustainability-related disclosures thereby contributing to the achievement of the United Nations’ SDGs and other universal targets on sustainability.