Price of Peace - Campaigning for the UN

Although peace is not an obvious topic for "business4good", peace is probably the most valuable public good. Ever since I read that the US is spending 20 (!) times the money on its military than on Official Development Assistance, I thought "can't we use this money in a better way?". No doubt, we need some 'hard' power in the form of military for defense but everything in moderation and well balanced please.

Therefore, I like the "Prize of Peace" Campaign. Although US focussed, it shows that peace is not just the right thing for humanity but also make economical sense. UN peacekeeping is 8 times cheaper than US military forces (see their video for more snappy facts). Peace is not just cheaper than war but furthermore UN peacekeeping efforts and 'soft' peacemaking efforts are much more effective than 'hard' military power.

We can debate endlessly about the flaws of the UN but we have any better organization? No, so let's get together and make the UN works - for a better world. What's your opinion?

Yunus Video on G8 and Development

Watch this interesting video where Yunus (Peace Nobel Prize 2006) answers questions about what the G8 and development should focus on. He talks about poverty, climate change, world peace and globalization etc.

I think he has a very inspiring view on how to develop capitalism and 'social business':
"Business is defined as a business to make money. That's the only kind of business today we know within the framework of capitalism. That kind of undermines human being. Human being is much bigger than that. Human being is not an entity which spends his or her lifetime making money."

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UN Opportunity: Become a Global Compact Online Volunteer

Get involved in the United Nations’ CSR Project

Do you want to learn about how companies implement the principles of the largest Corporate Citizenship initiative in the world? The UN Global Compact offers you a special “externship” volunteer opportunity: With little time and from home you can help the UN, learn about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and receive valuable benefits.

What is the UN Global Compact?

• The world's largest corporate citizenship initiative aiming for a more sustainable and inclusive world economy
• Supported by over 4000 participants in over 100 countries
  
• Includes many of the worlds most influential companies, such as Coca Cola, ebay and Microsoft

What is the Project?
Companies from all over the world report their progress on implementing the 10 Global Compact principles. Presently, there are over 2000 so-called “Communication on Progress” (COP) reports. We need your support to review and tag these COPs in order to build a fully searchable database. Each review takes approximately 30 minutes.

What are your Benefits in Participating?

• Gain valuable learning and resume-building experience in the field of CSR
• Find out what companies around the world are doing for sustainable development
  
• Receive a Certificate of Participation after completing 10 COP reviews
  
• Get a personal Letter of Appreciation by reviewing more than 50 COPs!

Participate now at: www.unglobalcompact.org/COP/Wiki

For any questions please contact me here or at nagler@un.org.
Thank you for participating!

---------------
Juergen Nagler
Coordinator COP Review Project
UN Global Compact Office
United Nations
email: nagler@un.org
www.unglobalcompact.org

The Achievements of the UN Global Compact

For my Global Politics Masters course I wrote this paper:

The United Nations Global Compact is the world’s largest corporate citizenship initiative and started as an experiment when Kofi Annan challenged business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1999. After decades of suspicion between the UN and the private sector this marked a historic change in the UN’s attitude towards business. In the face of globalization challenges, world poverty and inequalities, the Secretary-General called for a global compact between the private sector, civil society, governments and the UN to give globalization a human face. High expectations were raised and this essay will answer the question of what the Global Compact’s achievements have been so far.

At first, the Global Compact is introduced by exploring the attitude change of the UN with respect to the private sector away from hostility towards a compact, followed by describing its multiple stakeholders as well as the Global Compact’s ten principles which form the core of the initiative to foster more responsible business practices. After this brief introduction, I will argue in favour for four achievements of the Global Compact and compare them to various different expectations:

1. The Global Compact contributed to the attitude change of the UN towards the private sector and became a central position between these two actors.
   
2. The governance structure of the Global Compact accommodates differing stakeholders’ views that seemed to be incompatible, and with its pragmatic and unbureaucratic approach is an innovation within the UN as well as compared to other international institutions.
   
3. The Global Compact developed itself from a small scale experiment into a global network of networks fostering learning and dialogue among over 4000 participants with continued strong participant growth.
4. The initiative has had a positive impact on corporate policies and therefore contributed to more responsible business practices as well as to more public accountability of corporations.

Despite many very welcoming comments about the establishment of the Global Compact, there were also strong critics of the initiative whose critiques will be used as reference points to put the achievements of the Global Compact in perspective. It will be shown that a lot has been achieved, yet in comparison to the persistent globalization challenges much more remains to be done. Therefore, the achievements provide a solid foundation for a compact greater in reach as well as impact in the future.

Read the full PDF paper.

Yunus: Change the Way the World does Business

No need to say how much I admire Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. In this great article he explains his few on leveraging globalization and social business to make a difference in the world and to alleviate poverty.

Globalization: "I support globalization and believe it can bring more benefits to the poor than any alternative. But it must be the right kind of globalization. To me, globalization is like a 100-lane highway criss-crossing the world. If it is a free-for-all highway, its lanes will be taken over by the giant trucks from powerful economies - Bangladeshi rickshaws will be thrown off the highway.

In order to have a win-win globalization, we must have traffic rules, traffic police, and a traffic authority for this global highway. The rule of 'strongest takes it all' must be replaced by rules that ensure that the poorest have a place and piece of the action, without being elbowed out by the strong."

Social Business: "Will be a new kind of business introduced in the market place with the objective of making a difference to the world. Investors in a social business could get back their investment money, but will not take any dividend from the company. Profit would be ploughed back into the company to expand its outreach and improve the quality of its product or service. A social business will be a non-loss, non-dividend company."

Read the inspiring SPIEGEL ONLINE article.

Avaaz.org: The World in Action - Become an Online Activist

Do you want to make a difference? If the answer is "Yes but..." because you have no time to be an activist because of all your commitments, work, family, appointments, then Avaaz.org is for you!

"Avaaz.org is a community of global citizens who take action on the major issues facing the world today. The aim of Avaaz.org is to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people shape global decisions. Avaaz.org members act for a more just and peaceful world and a globalisation with a human face."

I have supported most of their latest campaigns... together we can make a difference! For example, Avaaz fought to sack Paul Wolfowitz (done), to close Guantanamo etc. Now the heat is on to make climate change top of the agenda of the G8.

Take action and sign the Avaaz petition now: www.avaaz.org

Franchising meets Social Entrepreneurship: Kenya Video

PBS, a US non-profit media enterprise is featuring a nice example how entrepreneurship can serve communities in. This video shows a franchising-concept for affordable health services and medicines in Kenya! Franchising normally know for brands such as McDonald's and Holiday Inn reminds me of my good old days at Siemens with their daughter company Com Computertraining.

Franchising has the advantage that it combines a proven and standardized concept and brand with the drive of a local entrepreneur. Watch this 5 minute video of an American franchising expert being impressed by a Kenyan social entrepreneur:

Poverty: The widening Gap between Rich and Poor

When I saw this World Bank stats in the Economist I initially thought "hey, look at this, the number of extreme poor is declining in absolute numbers and relative of the world population. This is good news, we are on the right track".

Wrong! I recalled some discussion from university and tried to re-think "what really is poverty? Is it absolute, i.e. less than 1$ a day OR is it relative to other people?". Think about it... Sticking to the World Bank definition of absolute poverty of less than 1$ a day is simple and convenient but gives the wrong picture. Even if the poor people might not get poorer in absolute income, they become poorer compared to the rest of the world.

An analogy: If we would just measure how long people life, we could say "great, the people in Mali are still dying at 40 years and not earlier. So at least they are not getting poorer". BUT if you then see that people in developed countries live longer and longer (80s), it becomes obviously absurd.

That said, I believe we can't measure poverty disconnected. Poverty is relative to other people and means you can't afford basic things that your peers can (by the way it's seems similar with happiness). I love simplicity but the World Bank stats have outlived their purpose now because they paint a wrong picture. The gap between rich and poor is growing which means inequality and poverty is growing. Poverty ultimately has to be defined in relative terms, a claim supported by others in the field such as Brown/Ainley 2005 "Intl. Relations". What do you think?

UN Wire: Free newsletter from the United Nations on global issues

Are you interested in global issues and on what the United Nations is working on? On what the new Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is working on... what the global press is writing on the world's most pressing issues such as climate change, poverty and peace?

Then sign up for the great free newsletter "UN Wire" from the UN Foundation. It comes daily via email, has very well selected articles from around the world and is easy to read: UN Wire Sign Up

IBM's ThinkPlace searches for social business ideas for Africa

Wow, "old economy" IBM is entering the area of how business can help to overcome societal problems. Sounds like a topic for this blog! I like their approach and hope that ideas are followed through and materialize:

"Have you ever thought about changing the world? Or maybe just one continent at time? How about Africa?
Beginning in June 2007, IBM and its partners will convene more than 150 global thought leaders for several face-to-face sessions around the globe over a three month period. Why? To identify new opportunities to advance innovation and economic development for the people of Africa..

This is about business development, not charity
It's important to note that the GIO will not attempt to re-create or supplant the extensive range of charitable efforts already underway in Africa. Plain and simple, this is about using business opportunities to address key societal issues."

You can see the ideas IBM has collected so far or submit your own by May 25, 2007: IBM ThinkPlace Africa

While IBM is taking on the bigger picture, the Social Entrepreneur Youchaou in Mali is doing action on grass roots level... Elise, Tomas and I am going to explore this and opportunities with our Africa trip starting in December 2007 and hope for inspiration!