27 January 2007

What is the UN Global Compact?

With over 3000 participants in over 100 countries the Global Compact (GC) is now the largest voluntary Corporate Citizenship initiative in the world. Corporate Citizenship is a more "UN-formal" expression for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and closely related to Sustainable Development. The idea was born by Kofi Annan with the vision of a "more sustainable and inclusive global economy", and recently re-endorsed by Ban Ki-Moon.
"Let us choose to unite the power of markets with the authority of universal ideals. Let us choose to reconcile the creative forces of private entrepreneurship with the needs of the disadvantaged and the requirements of future generations".
Kofi Annan
The GC has two objectives: 1) Make the 10 principles part of business strategy, operations and culture everywhere and 2) Facilitate partnerships toward UN goals such as the MDGs. It is a multi-stakeholder initiative including prticipants from business, civil society (NGOs), governments / UN and labour. At the heart of the GC are 10 universal principles in the areas of:
  • Human Rights
  • Labour Conditions
  • Environment
  • Anti-Corruption
The GC participants range from Coca Cola, Microsoft to SME in developing countries, through all sectors and countries. The GC has local networks around the world and is managed out of the Global Compact Office in the UNHQ. Soon I am going to write what I exactly do there...

This PowerPoint file gives a good overview: Global Compact Presentation