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Leaders Summit 2010
Executive panel discussion at plenary session of 2010 Global Compact Leaders Summit Photograph: Stephen Chernin/UN Global Compact
Executive panel discussion at plenary session of 2010 Global Compact Leaders Summit Photograph: Stephen Chernin/UN Global Compact

Harnessing global business as a force for sustainable development

This article is more than 10 years old
This year's UN Global Compact Leaders Summit will unveil a new global framework for private sector sustainability action
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This September, chief executives from around the world meet in New York to take part in the UN Global Compact's triennial Leaders Summit. This is its fourth summit, following the founding Global Compact meeting at UN headquarters in 2000. This year's event is likely to be the most important so far.

Chaired again this year by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, the conference on 19-20 September will unveil a new global framework for private sector action on sustainability and outline a path for business to contribute to global priorities. Taglined Architects of a Better World, the summit opens up a major opportunity to mobilise the UN Global Compact network on all three pillars of sustainable development – social, economic and environmental.

A pivotal point in the UN agenda

This year's Leaders Summit comes barely a year after a breakthrough corporate sustainability forum organised by Global Compact and partners on the margin of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). The entire UN system has since engaged in Rio+20 follow-up. More specifically, with preparing a plan of action to follow the conclusion of Millennium Development Goal targets in 2015. The UN Global Compact for its part, launched one of the most intensive consultations on global priorities ever held among the international business community, and submitted a report on prospects for a post-MDG agenda to the UN secretary general.

Supporting the MDGs and preparing for a post-2015 development agenda will be a focus of the discussion during the week immediately following the Leaders Summit, as the UN General Assembly convenes its annual plenary session.

With the role of business, and especially of responsible, socially engaged business now a major topic in UN thinking, we are clearly primed for a very important and interesting summit discussion and exchange of ideas.

At one high-profile Leaders Summit event, CEOs will be joined by heads of state from African nations and heads of UN and civil society agencies in a private sector forum on Africa. Chaired by the UN secretary general, the forum will apply thinking on the post-2015 agenda to Africa's encouraging but still uncertain future prospects, especially regarding jobs for youth, education, women's empowerment, and innovative financing.

Adopting UN principles and proactive strategies

The UN Global Compact has come a long way since 44 chief executives met for the first time under UN auspices in 2000. The condition for participation was, and remains to be, a voluntary but public commitment by businesses to respect and uphold UN principles on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. The other requirement is to report publicly to stakeholders on actions in support of these principles annually.

The UN Global Compact now comprises 7,500 companies and 4,000 civil society organisations, making it the largest corporate sustainability initiative in the world today. Country-based local networks have opened up in 101 nations in all regions of the world.

But numbers tell only part of the story.

A major corporate sustainability trend is towards proactive initiatives to improve natural, social and economic environments. This often means joining forces with other companies or with government and civil society stakeholders, to take collective action. Through the UN Global Compact, issue platforms have taken shape on women's empowerment, children's rights, climate and energy, water management and anti-corruption. For example, our Women's Empowerment Principles and Caring for Climate initiatives are the world's largest business platforms for action on these issues.

Additional platforms are now under construction in the areas of business and education, business for peace, and sustainable agriculture and food and will be launched at the Leaders Summit.

Getting ready for 2015

Harnessing global business as a force for sustainable development will require a robust business engagement framework that can broaden the participation of companies, deepen commitments on core issues, upgrade partnerships and collective action, and strengthen capacity for implementation at the national and local levels.

Investors, too, have a critical role to play with respect to advancing the tenets of responsible investment and sustainable finance.

Ban, with inputs from significant sectors of the public and the UN, is at present preparing his vision for a post-2015 agenda. Member states are holding negotiations on the Rio+20-endorsed concept of a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to carry forward the work of the MDGs. Mechanisms for corporate action and multi-stakeholder partnerships will be crucial factors in both regards, and September's Leaders Summit is dedicated to ensuring that business is ready to contribute on a massive scale.

Georg Kell, executive director, United Nations Global Compact

Credits

This content is brought to you by Guardian Sustainable Business in association with the UN Global Compact. Paid for by the UN Global Compact. All editorial controlled and overseen by the Guardian.

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