Earlier this week, HUGE Executive Director Greg Huger joined a virtual CSIS panel for a discussion on Sustainable Development Goal #17: Partnerships for the Goals, which aims to strengthen global partnerships to support and achieve the ambitious targets of the 2030 Agenda, bringing together governments, civil society, the private sector, and other actors. Other participants included moderator Dan Runde, Michael Meltzler, Executive Director for the Private Sector Engagement Hub at USAID, Heather Culp, Manager of Strategy and Analytics at Chevron, and David McCauley, Senior Fellow for Sustainable Finance at the World Wildlife Fund.
Greg’s intervention during the panel focused on an area where he has significant professional experience – the process by which US development assistance and involvement is carried out in different environments around the world. After illustrating the distinct roles each agency, such as USAID, the DFC and the MCC, have to play, he explained, “…and all that leads to the opportunity for the private sector with great involvement from the Development Finance Corporation to invest and take it into a future where it’s all done by the private sector, which is really where the money is, so I am a great believer in the synergy and the partnerships that we’re talking about here to achieve the order of magnitude to meet the challenges of the goal.”
As pointed out by several other panelists during this discussion, strides forward in development goals can only be made if civil society, the public sector, and the private sector are all willing to commit to the process of making global partnerships more innovative thereby, improving people’s lives around the world. The HUGE Business and Investment Council is a 501(c)(6) non-profit established by private sector leaders from the US and the Northern Triangle countries of Central America to facilitate private investment for massive job creation in the four countries. Greg pointed out that those involved with making the HUGE mission a reality understand what it will take for people to avoid the path of illegal immigration to the US: jobs that offer decent salaries and good benefits, including health, education, good housing in safe communities, and strong enforcement of the rule of law. Thus HUGE is partnering with development agencies and civil society to create the American Dream at home in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador so fewer are faced with the harsh reality of seeking it in the US.