PRESS BRIEFING ON GLOBAL COMPACT SUMMIT

PRESS BRIEFING ON GLOBAL COMPACT SUMMIT

Over 400 chief executive officers (CEOs) and representatives of international civil society are set to join Secretary-General Kofi Annan at United Nations Headquarters in New York later this week to discuss better corporate practices in human rights, labour and the environment -- hallmarks of his Global Compact initiative, the event’s organizers announced today.

In a press briefing, John Ruggie, Mr. Annan’s Special Adviser on the Global Compact, said the corporate executives, government officials and civil society leaders will gather for a Leaders Summit this Thursday, 24 June, to debate a range of issues key to cooperate leadership and responsibility.  A highlight of the event will be a keynote address from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, the driving force behind several innovative projects aimed at eradicating poverty and hunger, whom Mr. Ruggie called “the living embodiment of the Compact’s spirit”.

Participants at the one-day meeting are also expected to devise a new strategic focus for the Compact along with a new governance structure that will help the initiative respond to an expanding slate of projects.  They also hope to effectively realign the Compact’s global activities with relevant local programmes in an effort to ensure that community-level voices were adequately heard.

The Global Compact sets forth nine guiding principles that focus on human rights, labour standards and concern for the environment.  Companies subscribing to the principles are encouraged to make clear statements of support and to submit an annual report that includes concrete examples of "good practices" for other firms to emulate.  At the Leaders Summit, the Secretary-General is expected to announce a tenth principle on anti-corruption.

“Coming just four years after the founding of the Global Compact, the Summit marks the growth of the initiative from a relatively modest 50 or so participating firms to nearly 1,500 now”, Mr. Ruggie said.  It had become by far the largest corporate citizenship initiative in the world, and, with a particularly visible presence in developing countries, had helped put “corporate responsibility” on the agenda of the developing world.

Recalling the results of a recent study of the initiative’s effects carried out by the international management consultancy McKinsey & Company, Mr. Ruggie said that some 67 per cent of respondents had changed their corporate policies in relation to human rights, labour and environmental principles since joining the Compact, with 40 per cent reporting that the Compact was a significant driver of those changes.  The survey had also shown that some firms had been prompted to join or initiate partnerships promoting the Compact’s goals.

Moreover, he said of the Compact’s influence that companies with global vision, whether in developed or developing countries, had increasingly discovered that stakeholder engagement and corporate citizenship could be used as tools for risk management and to help mount a more effective response to rapidly changing corporate environments.  The Compact had “special attributes” in that regard, since its principles were universal -- having been agreed by member States and reflective of the overall ideals and goals of the United Nations.

Also speaking at today’s briefing, Georg Kell, Executive Head of the Global Compact, outlined the schedule of events for the Summit.  He said the planners had aimed for a purely interactive meeting, centred on round table discussions and interactive debates.  There would be three press conferences during the day, but few of the traditional statements in plenary.  He hoped that the participants left with a renewed dedication to deepening their commitment to the Compact’s principles.

Mr. Kell also expressed hope that significant pledges and partnerships would be announced, and both he and Mr. Ruggie stressed that the Summit would mark the first time the mainstream investment community would be actively involved in the Compact’s work.  The Summit was a part of the Global Compact’s “ongoing experiment in cooperation”, Mr. Ruggie said, and having investment groups support the notion that social and environmental aspects of investment were important would be very positive.

Several correspondents questioned the Compact’s ability to be anything more than a “talk shop”, particularly with such a low level of participation from United States- and United kingdom-based firms.  Mr. Kell admitted that the Compact was indeed a voluntary initiative and that there might be noticeable gaps in participation by some countries or regions.  But he stressed that the initiative was nonetheless generating communication between stakeholders and shareholders on implementation, and that would provided stimuli for further change.

Another correspondent wondered why so few big energy companies like Exxon Mobil were involved.  She asked what was being done to promote their engagement in the Compact’s environmental aims, including combating industrial pollution in China, and deforestation and labour-related health hazards in other countries.  Mr. Kell said that Exxon Mobil was not a member of the Compact.  China was sending a very large delegation of some 20 influential business leaders to the Summit, and the Government had evinced a desire to address environmental concerns.  Overall, he hoped that the meeting would point the way to the future on ways to bridge business enterprises with initiatives to address global social development and environmental concerns.

Mr. Ruggie said that the Compact’s success was largely in the hands of its participants.  He hoped that the participants would look at root causes, and that through dynamic interaction individual CEOs would walk away recommitted and the next day, call board meetings and urge their staffs to be aware of their companies’ social and environmental liabilities and to inculcate the Compact’s initiatives and aims.

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