The UN SDG Action Campaign, along with Paragon Partnerships and Kantar Public, wins the MRS President’s Award

The UN SDG Action Campaign, along with Paragon Partnerships and Kantar Public, has been awarded the President’s Medal, a honor which is bestowed annually by the Market Research Society (MRS) to an organization that has conducted extraordinary research.

The President’s Medal Winner – the UN SDG Action Campaign, sponsored by Paragon Partnerships (Kantar Public and Lightspeed) – developed and tested a question library of almost 100 SDG questions. This huge project constituted the first step to enable countries to measure their journey to the accomplishment of the SDGs in a consistent way. Data from the library was presented at the United Nations High Level Political Forum in July 2018 and is also publicly available for any government organization or NGO to use.

The UN SDG Action Campaign, with Paragon Partnerships and Kantar Public, were selected as one of the five esteemed nominees who have been using research to positively impact society. This year’s nominees were chosen by President of MRS Jan Gooding, Chair of MRS Phyllis Macfarlane and CEO of MRS Jane Frost CBE.

On choosing the winner, Jan Gooding, President of MRS, said:

“I was immensely impressed by what was achieved on a voluntary basis. It was a huge act of generosity on the part of everyone involved. At a time when the UN can find itself justifying its work and existence, when the problems in the world are so huge, this kind of collaboration to provide evidence of effectiveness is something to be celebrated and applauded.”

The MRS Awards celebrate research’s ability to drive innovation, inspire change and deliver results. See all finalists and winners of this year’s awards.

More information:

The UN SDG Action Campaign is an inter-agency special initiative of the UN Secretary-General to scale up, broaden, and sustain the global movement to take action for the SDGs. The UN SDG Action Campaign aims to mobilize and inspire individuals and organizations to take action and join the global movement for the SDGs, while connecting people’s actions and perceptions with decision makers in SDG planning and review processes at all levels.

Paragon Partnerships was launched at Impact 2016, the MRS Annual Conference, by Stan Sthanunathan of Unilever in response to the UN’s 17th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). The programme calls on the private sector to help the UN achieve the SDGs by 2030.

The Market Research Society (MRS) is the UK professional body for research, insight and analytics. MRS recognizes 5,000 individual members and over 500 accredited Company Partners in over 50 countries who are committed to delivering outstanding insight. As the regulator, they promote the highest professional standards throughout the sector via the MRS Code of Conduct.

Photo credit: MRS