Advancing Citizenry to Advance Development

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Advancing Citizenry to Advance Development

• Richard Leete, PhD
• UNDP Resident Representative for Malaysia,
  Singapore and Brunei Darussalam

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How can business support development?

• Globalization has made our world more
  interconnected. Business, government, and civil
  society alike, have an interest in ensuring that
  globalization delivers benefits to all
• Poverty not only destroys people within national
  boundaries, it ripples outward in waves,
  spreading misery
• No company is immune. Business knows that how it
  addresses social issues has a direct impact on
  risks, reputations, employees morale, and
  markets on which it depends

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Towards the Global Compact (GC)

• If the private sector does not deliver economic
  growth and economic opportunity equitable and
  sustainable around the world, then peace will
  remain fragile and social justice a distant
  dream. That is why I call today for a new
  partnership between governments, the private
  sector and the international community.
• Kofi Annan, UNSG, Davos, 1999
• GC corporate citizenship initiative first
  proposed by SG in 1999 and launched in 2000
• partnership of 2,000 companies from 80 countries
  now involved from North and South
• http//www.unglobalcompact.org/Portal/Default.asp
  ?

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The GC

• UNs global corporate citizenship initiative
  bringing together companies, NGOs and trade
  unions with common purpose of fostering action in
  support of universal values
• Voluntary initiative to induce corporate change
  by promoting corporate social responsibility
  (CSR)
• Consumers perceptions of companies now
  determined as much by a companys social and
  environmental practices as by its product brands

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Responding to global challenges

• GC sees business as part of a solution to
  challenges of globalisation and achievement of
  MDGs
• Benefits unequally distributed between and
  within countries and diminished investments in
  poorest countries
• Imbalance in global rule-making (WTO) and limited
  market access
• Financial and economic crises
• Fears of loss of cultural identity
• Global economic environment linked to global
  political and security climate business
  confidence depends on political stability and
  security

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GC goals

• To make GC principles part of business strategy
  and operations
• To facilitate cooperation and collective problem-
  solving between different stakeholders
• To provide a platform for new forms of
  partnership building with multiple-actors

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GC principles

• Human rights
• To support, respect and protect human rights
• No complicity in human rights abuses
• Labour rights
• To recognize collective bargaining
• To avoid forced or compulsory labour
• To refrain from employing child labour
• To eliminate discrimination in hiring and firing
  policies
• Environment
• A precautionary approach to environmental
  challenges
• Greater environmental responsibility
• To encourage use of environmentally friendly
  technologies
• Anti-corruption
• Work against all forms of corruption, incl.
  extortion and bribery

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Why participate?

• Increased sensitivity of public to how companies
  produce their goods and about environmental
  issues
• Good for business to brand with the ideals of the
  GC and to network with like-minded companies
• Rally around universal principles and responsible
  corporate citizenship to make the global economy
  more sustainable and inclusive
• Access UNs knowledge in development issues and
  its practical reach worldwide
• Leverage UNs global reach and convening power
  with government, business, civil society and
  other stakeholders

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Track record of business

• Good at responding to media-saturated emergencies
  arising from natural calamities (e.g. 26 Dec
  tsunami)
• But less good in responding to the silent
  media-absent tsunami of millions dying
  prematurely and suffering in poverty in its many
  dimensions

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Engaging through GC

• Policy dialogue
• Facilitate mutual understanding and advocacy to
  help solve global development challenges
• Information sharing and learning
• Internet forum for sharing experiences through
  presentations, examples or case studies, managed
  in GC Office http//www.unglobalcompact.org/Portal
  
• Partnerships and projects
• With technical and financial support from, inter
  alia, business sector and operationalized through
  UNDP

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Development and business

• Development is multisectoral and
  multidisciplinaryit must involve multiple actors
• Growth, with equity, drives sustainable
  development partnerships, private and public
  sectors and NGOs, provide the vehicle
• MDGs intended to help poor people. But good for
  business too e.g. infrastructure and capacity
  development big opportunity

1.2 billion of worlds 6.3 billion people live in
extreme poverty
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How business supportsExamples

• GC inspired numerous development initiatives
  from AIDS awareness to anti-corruption, from
  e-learning to eco-efficiency
• E-Learning for life (Malaysia)
• To create ICT community centres in six pilot
  schools in disadvantaged areas jointly
  undertaken by Min of Ed Malaysia, UNDP and
  Coca-Cola Malaysia, and funded by Coca-Cola
• Promoting economic self-reliance for women in
  vulnerable situations (Malaysia)
• Aimed at providing poor and vulnerable women with
  skills and seed funding to develop a sustainable
  source of livelihood undertaken by UNDP and
  Carrefour International Foundation and funded by
  Carrefour
• Preservation of Dugongs (Malaysia)
• UNDP-Titan partnership to improve environmental
  management

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Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

• In Sept 2000, 189 world leaders adopted the
  Millennium Declaration containing the MDGs to
  be reviewed in Sept 2005
• MDGs are 8 mutually reinforcing time-bound goals,
  with 18 related targets to be achieved by 2015
• an accountability framework and a global
  partnership for progressively eradicating poverty
• MDGs are international communitys commitment to
  eradicate poverty by 2015
• at forefront of global development agenda
• in addition to income, non-income dimensions
  include health, education, womens empowerment,
  access to information, clean water, sanitation
  and electricity

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The MDGs

• MDG 1 Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Target 1 Halve of people whose income ltUS1 a
  day
• MDG 2 Achieve universal primary education
• MDG 3 Promote gender equality and empower women
• MDG 4 Reduce child mortality
• MDG 5 Improve maternal health
• MDG 6 Combat HIV-AIDS, malaria and other
  diseases
• MDG 7 Ensure environmental sustainability
• MDG 8 Develop a global partnership for
  development
• Target 13 Manage debt relief and increase ODA
• Developing countries primary responsibility for
  achieving MDGs 1-7 mobilising domestic
  resources, ensuring good governance, etc.
• Developed countries have obligation (MDG 8) to
  help poorer countries achieve MDGs 1-7

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Some regions are reducing extreme poverty in
others poverty is on the rise
Linear trend from 1990-2000
Current trend
MDG goal in 2015
MDG goal in 2015
Ahead of target
Population living in extreme poverty ()
Behind target
Middle East and North Africa
Europe and Central Asia
Latin America and Caribbean
South Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa
East Asia and Pacific
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A way forward

• Beyond terrorism and weapons of mass destruction,
  UN also acts against risks and realities of
  poverty, hunger and disease
• Article 1 of UN Charter is to take effective
  collective measures for the prevention and
  removal of threats to the peace
• SGs Commission on the Private Sector and
  Development Unleashing Entrepreneurship Making
  Business Work for the Poor
• http//www.unglobalcompact.org/irj/servlet/prt/por
  tal/prtroot/com.sapportals.km.docs/ungc_html_conte
  nt/NewsDocs/CPSD_text_Eng_FINAL.pdf
• Potential for Malaysian businesses, in
  partnership with UNDP, to launch CSR projects to,
  inter alia, support local, national and
  South-South development initiatives

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Thank You