How can we drive meaningful change in the private sector to encourage sustainability and support communities while growing economies? Promote women’s leadership.

Last week, in celebration of International Women’s Day, the Business & Sustainable Development Commission released a report, Better Leadership, Better World: Women Leading for the Goals, which finds that business teams that are gender-balanced with women in leadership roles have competencies in areas that are important to business growth and sustainable development: long-term thinking, innovation, collaboration, transparency, environmental management, and social inclusiveness.

The report makes the case that greater diversity and female leadership deepens these competencies, which then accelerates sustainable and longer-term business opportunities in line with the SDGs.

It is a continued call to action for more organizations and actors to incorporate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their core operations, but it also pushes us all to think about the powerful role that women leaders and diversity can play as accelerators toward the goals and in unlocking the $12 trillion in new market opportunities that exist.

An essential point in the report is that women are more than beneficiaries of the Sustainable Development Goals, but leaders in driving SDG action and implementation.

Read the full article on how gender equity and the SDGs align by Kaysie Brown at United Nations Foundation.