SECRETARY-GENERAL, IN MESSAGE TO NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY CONFERENCE, STRESSES

ACADEMIA’S ROLE IN GUIDING MORE EFFECTIVE POLICIES, PRACTICES

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s message to the University of Notre Dame Conference, as delivered by Georg Kell, Executive Director, United Nations Global Compact Office, yesterday, 12 November:

I am pleased to send my greetings to all who have gathered at the University of Notre Dame for this important meeting.  I am particularly delighted that so many leading figures from business, academia and civil society have come together to articulate a vision of “Peace through Commerce”.

International commerce has helped drive globalization.  And, it has benefited greatly from it.  Business vision, strategies, and organization are powerful forces in the global community.  Yet, our fragile international order faces great challenges in the interconnected realms of development, security and human rights.  Securing its future requires your resources and capacities, your advocacy, and your leadership.  It calls for the unique contributions that only private enterprise can make to the creation of public value, at home and abroad.

Today, UN and civil society engagement with business can be seen in countless day-to-day operations around the world.  Innovative partnerships with the private sector are helping to solve many of the world’s most pressing problems including poverty, hunger, water supply and HIV/AIDS.  Yet, there is great potential to further deepen and broaden these collaborations.

The academic community can play an important role in this regard.  Your research on the evolving issue of corporate citizenship can guide more effective policies and practices.  And you can better equip future leaders -- in business and beyond -— with the knowledge and tools they will need to meet humanity’s most pressing global challenges.

We all understand that a company’s “bottom line” can no longer be separated from community and national development.  So, I ask all of you to work together -- business, civil society and academia -- and to work with the United Nations, to realize the promise of a fairer more stable world.

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For information media • not an official record