Business Leaders Envision Support on Climate, Education and Technology at Opening of High-Level United Nations Forum

Corporate chiefs today put on the table contributions they see business making to global priorities, in dialogue with diplomats opening a two-week political forum in New York.  

Optimizing the role of the private sector will depended on business men and women acting in a statesmanlike capacity, taking in a wide view of the social-corporate connection, Mark Moody-Stuart, Chairman of the Foundation for the United Nations Global Compact and former Chair of Royal Dutch Shell, told the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.  From the Government side, smart regulation is needed that challenges the creativity of market forces but does not tie them down, he said.  “There is a tendency to tell us not just what we need to achieve, but how to do it as well.  That kills the whole thing.”

Explaining the work of the Forum at an advance briefing, United Nations Economic and Social Council President Martin Sajdik said that we are “charting the path for development for the next 15 years” and considering “ways to mobilize the business sector and civil society.”

The High-Level Political Forum was created by decision of United Nations Member States at a 2012 summit in Rio de Janeiro, and assigned primary responsibility for mobilizing political commitment for a new set of sustainable development goals and monitoring their implementation starting in 2015.  For three years out of four, the Forum is held under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council at the ministerial level.  Mr. Sajdik, in his remarks today, cited the important role that the Global Compact, as a primary outreach arm of the United Nations to business, has played in helping to establish the post-2015 development agenda.

Ambassador Jean-Francis Zinsou (Benin), speaking also for the least developed country group at the United Nations, stressed the importance of finding the right setting to draw as much benefit as possible from business at the national level.  Government should define needs and find ways to draw on the wider resources of the private sector and develop new forms of partnership.

“It’s essential to find the right balance,” he said, warning of situations where “gains are privatized while losses are socialized”.

Constraints in the poorest countries include lack of technology and infrastructure, the Ambassador noted.  Industrialization based on stable relations with business is a key to both areas.  There is also high interest in foreign direct investment to avoid credit mechanisms that wind up creating debt, he said.

Fuji Xerox board director Toshio Arima indicated a dual motivation for corporations to engage in sustainability operations: improved corporate citizenship as a matter of risk management on the one hand, and engaging in creative initiatives in areas like education as a means to opening up new market opportunities.

For more information, contact Tim Wall at the UN Global Compact, tel.: +1 213 447 5954, wallt@un.org.