Achieving Sustainable Development Goals: The Role of the Accountancy Profession in Malta

Abstract

Various initiatives have been undertaken to promote a global sustainable development agenda, with the most recent one being the United Nations (UN)’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In 2015, the UN General Assembly set 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets to be achieved by its 193 member states (including Malta) by 2030. These SDGs position sustainable development as a global challenge which needs to be tackled by various stakeholders including governments and non-governmental and business organizations. Professional accountancy bodies, such as the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA), acknowledge that the profession plays an important role in the achievement of SDGs. Despite these claims, there is limited research that investigates the role that the profession plays in furthering the achievement of SDGs. In view of this context, this research explores how the accountancy profession in Malta is contributing to furthering the achievement of eight specific SDGs, with a view to making recommendations as to what further initiatives can be implemented by the profession to further contribute to the achievement of these SDGs by Malta. A grounded theory methodology has been adopted, so that theory could be generated from the data collected through the qualitative interviews which were carried out with four professionals. Results show that Maltese accountancy professionals are engaging in several initiatives that contribute towards the achievement of SDGs, even though they face a number of barriers. A theoretical model, grounded in the data generated, has emerged with three approaches which accountancy professionals are adopting when contributing towards the achievement of the UN’s SDGs, namely the conservative, visionary, and adaptive approaches. The study also recommends new initiatives that accountancy professionals could possibly introduce to further contribute to achieving SDGs.