Business-UN compact could be at take-off point
By Maria Livanos Cattaui
New York, 26 July 2000 - United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan can be reasonably confident that he will today secure from corporate leaders a ringing endorsement of the UN's Global Compact with business to promote shared values in the areas of human rights, labour standards and the environment.
CEOs and senior executives of 50 major companies and business organizations from all over the world are joining Mr Annan at UN headquarters in New York to review the progress of the Compact. Many of the world's biggest companies have taken up the Secretary-General's challenge, first issued in January 1999.
The Global Compact has cau
ght the imagination of business. Enthusiasm is spreading under the stimulus of competition and the determination of companies to be seen to be good corporate citizens.
Only a radical departure from Kofi Annan's original concept of a compact between business and the UN - built on their common interest in peace, stability, economic growth and wealth generation - could muddy the waters and weaken business support.
Business would look askance at any suggestion involving external assessment of corporate performance, whether by special interest groups or UN agencies. The Global Compact is a joint commitment to shared values, not a qualification to be met. It must not become a vehicle for governments to burden business with prescriptive regulations.
Today's meeting is important because it is likely to provide Mr Annan with the broad business endorsement he needs for the Global Compact before the UN Millennium Assembly opens in September. Assuming that all goes well, the Secretary-General will be able to demonstrate to UN member governments that the Global Compact is a going concern and should not be tampered with.
Business insistence on a two-way partnership with the UN does not mean that the Global Compact is inward-looking. The UN and its agencies would do well to form partnerships modelled on the Compact with other constituencies, like the trade unions or environmental organizations. These can develop in parallel with the UN-business partnership.
It is by the same token open to individual companies to engage in dialogue and to form partnerships at the grass roots with non-governmental organizations that they believe can advance the core values of the Compact. The scope for extending such cooperation is worth exploring further.
The presence at today's meeting of non-governmental organizations like Amnesty International, the World Resources Institute and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions provides an opportunity for these NGOs to explore the possibilities with business representatives.
The International Chamber of Commerce is acting as a catalyst for the Global Compact. Month by month, ICC is posting on its website a growing list of reports showing how some of the world's biggest companies are translating words into deeds. They include Akzo, Aventis, Coca-Cola, De Beers, DHL, McDonald's, Nobel, BP Amoco, Ericsson, Fiat, GlaxoWellcome, Royal Dutch/Shell, TEPCO, Unilever and many others.
The case studies range from dissuading suppliers from employing child labor to adult literacy programs, on-the-job technical training, and provision of health care for local communities.
One company, WebMD, is supplying medical knowhow free over the internet to least developed countries. Another, Ericsson, provides technical and hardware support for disaster relief by UN and other agencies.
All UN agencies are involved in one way or another in collaborative projects with business, like ICC's joint project with the UN Conference on Trade and Development to help some of the world's poorest countries to attract foreign direct investment. The World Health Organization received extensive corporate backing for its successful polio eradication program.
While corporate philanthropy plays a significant part in the Global Compact, the main contribution that companies can and are making is to be good corporate citizens in the communities in which they operate and in the
way their conduct their own business.
Companies cannot encroach on the responsibilities of governments to provide essential services and uphold law and order. They do not aspire to solving all the world's problems. What they do is to create wealth and jobs - thus fighting poverty, the enemy of the humanitarian values both business and the UN support. That is no small contribution.
The companies gathered at UN headquarters today are mostly multinationals whose names are household words. A big challenge ahead will be to enlist the support of tens of thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises.
The Global Compact has already generated its own momentum, but it is still in its early days. Prospects are good for the Global Compact to really take off after today's meeting.
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Maria Livanos Cattaui is Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce
The Global Compact
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