A decade ago, changemakers from around the world united to adopt the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), creating a historic roadmap to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges — including poverty, health, education, energy, climate change, and environmental protection.

Recognizing the urgent need for collective action to achieve these ambitious goals by 2030, the United Nations introduced the Pact for the Future this past September. The Pact highlights the importance of mobilizing the private sector to address global challenges. 

The role that businesses can play and the importance of collaboration and partnership in achieving the SDGs was also stressed by Mr. Siddharth Chatterjee, UN Resident Coordinator in China, in his opening remarks at the recent 2024 Sustainable Social Value Innovation Summit (S Summit) organized by Tencent.

“Cross-sectoral partnerships encourage joint innovation and foster solutions that align economic growth with social and environmental impact,” he said, adding that “businesses, as both economic drivers and social innovators, hold a unique responsibility to pioneer sustainable solutions and shape a better future.”

Themed “Growth,” the Sustainable Social Value Innovation Summit was held in Beijing on December 3.

Uniting Changemakers for Better Solutions

At the Summit, changemakers including businesses, NGOs, academia, and social entrepreneurs convened to explore how science, technology, and business can be driving forces in addressing global challenges.

Xi Dan, senior vice president at Tencent, told the story of a father in South China who saved his child’s life under the guidance of a doctor connected by the First Aid Assistant Weixin mini program. It illuminated how technology can connect social forces to creative and collaborative networks. “In tackling complex societal challenges, the connectivity of the internet has the power to create new avenues for social impact, uniting previously fragmented efforts into a creative, collaborative force for good,” he said.

Caitlyn Chen, vice president of Tencent and head of Tencent’s Sustainable Social Value organization, elaborated on more examples and highlighted three key areas where the company leverages its core competencies to foster social value: enhancing efficiency in inclusive public services through digital and AI capabilities, ensuring accessibility to make social innovation networks effective, and maintaining commitment to its core mission while seeking sustainable long-term support in uncharted territories. “All solutions to societal challenges require an open and collaborative ecosystem,” she said. “Only by working together can we turn goodwill into even greater possibilities."

More than 800 people attended the S Summit; 13 million watched by livestream.

Other speakers across sectors also shared their thoughts and practices in the main forum. Greg Bianchi, director of partnerships for Microsoft’s Skills for Social Impact team, highlighted the impact of the AI Skilling initiatives, focusing on the importance of equipping learners worldwide with the tools to adapt to an AI-driven future. Dawda Jobarteh, global head & deputy director, Goalkeepers, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, discussed its Goalkeepers program and how it has built a global innovation value chain across sectors to accelerate SDGs and ensure impact.

Salman Khan, founder and CEO of the Khan Academy, discussed how AI can offer pathways for educational change, leading to reduced inequality. He believes AI can deliver the personalized instruction students need, while freeing up teachers to do what they do best. He also addressed that AI or technology itself is neutral. In order for technology to be a net positive, you need to have good people working on things with good intentions. And Stewart Langdon, a partner at LeapFrog Investments, provided insights into how the firm helps purpose-driven businesses scale and make an impact, including how they measure the outputs and outcomes in financial services and healthcare.

Collective Innovations for a Shared Tomorrow

The daylong event also included exhibition areas to showcase a range of impactful initiatives led by Tencent and partners, such as the Red Umbrella Program, digital volunteer teaching and first-aid training, as well as a charity bazaar. Several subforums were held, delving into the following topics:

1) AI for Good

Speakers shared applications of AI technologies in the social sector such as providing counseling and personalized psychological services, and improving disaster management. The discussion culminated in three key principles: human-centered AI, bridging digital divides to empower vulnerable groups, and fostering international collaboration for broader impact.

The Wildlife Friends Weixin Mini Program, a digital tool enabled by AI, helps engage the public in identifying species.

2) Low-Carbon Technology

Tencent introduced its CarbonX Program 2.0, together with an expanding network of partners across sectors, aimed at supporting innovations to scale cutting-edge technologies to help the world achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. After a successful first iteration in China, the program will expand to a broader spectrum of technologies and plan a diverse range of demonstration scenarios in different parts of the world, with a call for international proposals.

3) Inclusive Healthcare

Speakers addressed the role of new technologies in promoting health equity, from preventing cervical cancer to the use of AI in biotechnology to accelerate drug development and smart products, as well as tools to more effectively treat rare diseases in children.

4) Rural Development

The discussions unfolded from different countries and perspectives, from international organizations’ efforts to address hunger and malnutrition, to Bangladesh’s smallholder farmers, and to more developed societies like Japan and South Korea. The model of Rural CEO, an initiative supported by Tencent in China, is also being discussed as a solution to groom local talents to drive growth and economic development in their hometowns.

Li Mengna, a former stay-at-home mom who now operates the brand Cliffside Coffee, learns how to run a business from the Rural CEO initiative.

5) Sustainable Businesses

Case studies were presented on how social entrepreneurs can address societal challenges efficiently and creatively. For instance, Candle Killer by Shenzhen Power-Solution, a pocket-size solar light, has reduced the use of candles and kerosene and has made lighting cheaper for more than 7 million households, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

A visitor paints a penguin made from carbon.

Amity Bakery has provided skillset training for nearly 100 individuals with intellectual disabilities, helping them live better and more independent lives.