The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (Unitar) has recognized Unicaja Banco’s commitment to sustainable finance and its support to the dissemination of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 2030 Agenda. As a proof of the said recognition, it has presented the bank with a commemorative plaque.
The plaque, signed in Geneva (Switzerland), in the name of the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of Unitar, Nikhil Seth, has been given recently to Unicaja Banco Chairman, Manuel Azuaga, by Unitar’s Director for People and Social Inclusion, Alex Mejía.
Since the launch of Unitar’s International Center for Training of Authorities and Leaders (Cifal) in Malaga in 2018, Unicaja Banco has shown its support and collaboration with the work developed by this institution to promote financial inclusion and sustainable finance.
Collaboration of Unicaja Banco with Cifal
The support that the bank has been providing contributes to make Cifal Malaga to be the first Unitar center to address financial inclusion
The bank’s collaboration with Unitar is reflected, inter alia, in the economic support to Cifal Malaga, allowing it to become a training center of reference for the entire Mediterranean, where local, national and regional leaders can acquire skills that allow them to advance sustainable development in their communities and improve the quality of life of their societies and citizens.
In the exercise of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Unicaja Banco contributes to the implementation of policies and practices to promote financial inclusion and sustainable development. This support allows to provide training, in the specific case of Unitar and Cifal Malaga, to people commitment to fight poverty and to foster the economic development of communities, as well as the organization and development of different training activities to integrate, within the bank’s corporate strategy, topics such as financial inclusion and good governance, and reinforcing its commitment to achieve the SDGs of UN’s 2030 Agenda.
Unicaja Banco’s Sustainable Finance Plan
Unicaja Banco is committed to sustainability and to the environmental and social challenges. In fact, the bank has an Action Plan on Sustainable Finance, approved in mid-2020, reviewed to be updated in 2021 and aimed at enhancing the integration of ESG (environmental, social and governance) criteria in its business strategy.
Likewise, its support to this project falls within the permanent exercise of its CSR, as well as within its interest in contributing and reinforcing the good governance and sustainable development principles in the areas where it operates. Unicaja Banco is signatory to the United Nations Global Compact since 2013, and in 2017 it joined as partner the Spanish Network of the United Nations Global Compact. Additionally, in 2020 it joined the ‘Statement from Business Leaders for a Renewed Global Cooperation’, fostered by the United Nations Global Compact.
Equal conditions
For the UN, it is priority to ensure equal access to all natural and economic resources at reach, to basic and financial services, property and new technologies via the implementation of policies that contribute to promote the creation of quality work, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, as well as to foster the growth of SMEs.
Cifal Málaga works to promote learning and foster the exchange of knowledge related to good practices in social inclusion and urban governance between public representatives, leaders of international organizations, private companies and academic institutions
Cifal Málaga seeks to achieve, with the collaboration of Unicaja Banco and other institutions, those goals through the organization of seminars and workshops to promote the transmission of knowledge and the exchange of practical solutions on financial inclusion, sustainable development and poverty reduction, both between public representatives and private companies and financial institutions.
