Board names
UN secretary general Kofi Anan has appointed a group of 20 business, labour and civil society leaders from around the world to serve on the board of the UN Global Compact. The board will help ensure the Global Compact’s continuity and facilitate its further growth. It will provide strategic advice for the initiative as a whole and make recommendations to the UN Global Compact Office, participants and other stakeholders. The board will also play a role in implementing the compact’s integrity measures and in championing the initiative.
Meanwhile, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, chairman of Anglo American, is the inaugural chairman of the Foundation for the Global Compact, a new non-profit entity to help fund the work of the United Nations Global Compact.
The foundation, launched on April 19, aims to raise around $1m through voluntary contributions, to be used to ensure the sustainability and reach of the initiative and scale up its worldwide impact. Contact Matthias Stausberg, Global Compact 00 1 917 367 3423 www.unglobalcompact.org
Dealing with corruption
The Global Compact has released a new publication on the tenth principle on corruption, in partnership with the UN office on drugs and crime. Business Against Corruption – Case Stories and Examples includes over 25 examples from business and civil society, giving guidance on how to deal with difficult dilemma situations when implementing the 10th principle. Contact Birgit Errath, Global Compact 00 1 917 367 3421 www.unglobalcompact.org
Tackling poverty through commerce
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development has launched a leadership programme to examine the inter-relationship between business and poverty, in partnership with Oxfam and Cambridge University’s Programme for Industry. ABN Amro, BP and SABMiller are sponsoring the inaugural Business and Poverty programme, aimed at helping business leaders develop an understanding of how their companies can improve the quality of life of the world’s poorest communities through mainstream commercial activities. Contact CPI 01223 301 122 www.cpi.cam.ac.uk
Pole of excellence
The European Commission has said that it will not use regulation to promote the uptake of CSR, fearing that an approach that involves additional obligations and administrative requirements might be “counter productive”.
Instead, it has launched the European Alliance on CSR, “a political process to increase the uptake of CSR amongst European enterprises”. The Alliance is open to enterprises of any size and their stakeholders. Plans for the Alliance were unveiled at the launch of the commission’s communication on CSR to the European Parliament, the Council and The European Economic and Social Committee on March 22. Implementing the Partnership for Growth and Jobs: Making Europe a Pole of Excellence on Corporate Social Responsibility outlines the commission’s strategy for giving “greater visibility to CSR”.
To the dismay of campaigners who have called for greater regulation to ensure that companies behave responsibly, the Alliance is neither a legal instrument, nor will it have any signatories. Moreover the Commision has said that CSR is “fundamentally about voluntary business behaviour” and that it views enterprise as the primary agent of CSR.
However, the commission says that it continues to attach “utmost importance to dialogue with and between all stakeholders, and proposes to re-convene meetings of the Multistakeholder Forum at regular intervals”.
The communication outlines eight aspects that the Commission will focus on in its promotion of CSR:
– awareness-raising and best practice exchange especially with enterprise in acceding and candidate countries
– support to multi-stakeholder initiatives
– co-operation with member states
– consumer information and transparency
– interdisciplinary research on CSR, competitiveness and sustainable development
– CSR education in business schools, universities and education institutions
– encouraging CSR among SMEs
– the international dimension of CSR Contact European Commission www.eu.int
Briefing comments… What is a “pole of excellence on CSR”? Brussels-speak for Europe leading the world of responsible business practice – and the chosen route (after much internal wrangling) is a voluntary alliance of leading companies.
Cue instant denunciation by NGOs, though it was hard to tell which made them madder – the voluntary nature of the initiative, or them being excluded from it. Perhaps not surprising as they seriously blotted their copybooks after the multi-stakeholder process in 2004, by apparently signing up to a joint outcome with companies, and then ratting on the deal at the closing conference.
This time the high drama was provided by a disgruntled environmental commissioner, Stavros Dimas, who allegedly threatened to publicly denounce industry and enterprise commissioner, Günter Verheugen, the man backing the Alliance, just hours before the launch.
Behind the fun and games, however, some important choices have been made. First, with no chance of EU-wide legislation on corporate behaviour, the only route is indeed a voluntary one.Second, by linking CSR to jobs and competitiveness (the so-called Lisbon agenda), there is some chance national governments will take an interest. But third, the ball is now firmly in leading companies’ court to act.
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