UN Global Compact Core Contribution 2014 - 2016

The concept of corporate responsibility has changed dramatically since the UNGC was founded in 1999 on the proposal, that business and the United Nations (UN) jointly initiate a “global compact of shared values and principles, to give a human face to the global market”. Since then, many businesses have made sustainability considerations part of their corporate strategies thanks to, among others, the UNGC, the world’s largest corporate responsibility initiative.

The importance of the private sector in the achievement of sustainable development will further increase in the upcoming years, and the UNGC is ensuring that more and more companies worldwide are aligning their operations with the sustainable development agenda. As a key supporter of the UNGC since its inception, Switzerland continues to value its mandate as the most important gateway between the UN system and the private sector. Furthermore, the UNGC constitutes the world’s foremost platform for public-private dialogue on the sustainable development agenda.

The overall goal of this sixth phase contribution is to support the implementation of the UNGC’s 2014–2016 strategy with the overarching objectives to:

1) advance the corporate sustinability agenda by mainstreaming UN principles (human rights, labour, sustainability and anti-corruption) in business operations around the world; and

2) improve the quality of UN-Private Sector Partnerships in support of the UN goals, particularly the SDGs.

Businesses worldwide; Local Networks; Partner Governments; UN System.

1) The UNGC remains the world’s foremost corporate sustainability platform;

2) Membership is increased to 13,000 business participants by 2016 which are actively implementing the UNGC’s ten principles and are annually submitting a Communication on Progress (CoP);

3) Business contributions to UN goals have increased and the Post-2015 Business Engagement Architecture is implemented via UN processes; issue platforms; workstreams; and Local Networks.

Principaux résultats antérieurs:  

Following more than a decade of building up principles and partnerships, the Global Compact is today the world’s largest voluntary initiative to advance corporate sustainability, with 8,000 corporate participants engaging in over a dozen issue platforms and participating in 101 local networks around the world. However, a few challenges remain, which Switzerland is aiming to address in the next phase of support: First, the quality of the implementation of the ten principles varies significantly by company and there is limited evidence as to how a public commitment to sustainable business practices is indeed changing corporate behavior. Second, the mandate of the UNGC in facilitating UN – Private Sector partnerships needs to be clarified. Third, the governance of the initative is complex, due to its network governed hybrid structure with one foot in the UN and one foot in the private sector.

Phase 6 01.09.2014 - 31.12.2016   (Completed)