United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Creation of a vibrant private sector, vital to bringing economi c growth and social development to the world's poorer countries, has continued to be a common goal of ICC and UNDP. Helping chambers of commerce in developing and transition countries become effective institutions that can contribute to this process has been an important element of the program of ICC's specialized division for chamber affairs, the World Chambers Federation.  WCF worked closely with UNDP to enable chambers in such countries attend the 1st World Chambers Congress in Marseille (1999)  that was designed, inter alia, to help chambers improve their capacity to service the local private sector, for example, by acting as effective interlocutors for the local business community viv-a-vis national governments.WCF and UNDP have also worked closely on a range of chamber executive training programs.

UNDP's recognition that participation of these chambers in the Marseille Congress was important for their development led to subsequent financial assistance by the Asian Development Bank and the Canadian International Development Agency that made possible attendance of such chambers at the 2nd and 3rd World Chambers Congress in Seoul and Quebec in 2001 and 2003. WCF  and UNDP  recently worked closely in suppor ting chambers from least developed nations to attend the the 4th  World Chambers Congess  which was held in Durban, South Africa in  June  2005.

ICC has joined with UNDP and the International Business Leaders Forum  (IBLF)  to establish the World Business Awards in  Support of the  Millennium Development Goals. The awards recognize significant contributions of business enterprises, working through a partnership approach with other stakeholders, to achieving one or more of the UN Millennium Development Goals. Building on the success of the 2004 Awards for which nominations from 27 countries were submitted, the 2006 World Business Awards in support of the MDGs  hope to continue demonstrating the spirit of the Awards  by highlighting the business community's role in the pursuit of innovative and productive approaches to sustainable development, targeted at the development goals agreed to by governments in the UN Millennium Declaration. The World Business Awards presentation ceremony will take place in June 2006.

Comments on the "Delivering as one" Report of the UN Secretary General’s high-level panel on UN system-wide coherence, 11 January 2007