Entrepreneurship as a driver for advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: A study in Fiji

This conference paper argues that entrepreneurs can help society attain UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We investigate entrepreneurial initiatives at the micro-level with a view on macro- and meso level processes of the SDGs.
Our focus is Fiji -- the first country to ratify the Paris Climate Change Agreement in 2016. A new Fiji Water Act had already replaced the Water Supply Act of 1950 and a new Fiji Water Authority established. More recent legal developments have been: (1) the drafting of new legislation to establish the Fiji Water Authority which will supply water to all towns in the country; and (2) draft amendments to the Minerals Act, which (a) establish a requirement to obtain a permit to extract groundwater (and to install bores and wells) within declared areas, and (b) limit polluting activities in declared areas, for the purpose of protecting the quality of groundwater.
It is expected that entrepreneurship shall be combined with other societal actors towards the 17 SDGs for the 2030 proposed by the United Nations in substitution to the Millennium Goals (United Nations, 2015). Yet, influence of the institutional environment and how this might foster or diffuse the efforts of entrepreneurship to advance SDGs has so far received little attention. Furthermore, little is known about what policy directions might be suitable to further SDGs at a local level.