Can Business Help Achieve the Millennium Development Goals?

Richard Leete

UN Resident Coordinator for Malaysia

UNDP Resident Representative for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei

UNASSingapore12:03:04

Can Business Help Achieve the MDGs?

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) In September 2000, 189 world leaders at UN

Millennium Summit adopted the Millennium Declaration containing the MDGs

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 re-specify and build on goals and targets of 1990s global UN conferences

MDGs at forefront of global development agenda and a unifying tool for entire UN system

Can Business Help Achieve the MDGs?

The MDGs MDG 1 Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Target 1 Halve % of people whose income <US$1 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 12 Develop open trading and financial systemTarget 13 Manage debt relief and increase ODATarget 14 Address the special needs of developing poorest countriesTarget 15 Deal with developing countries’ debt problemsTarget 16 Create productive youth employmentTarget 17 Provide affordable medicine Target 18 Spread benefits of new technologies

Can Business Help Achieve the MDGs?

Pop

ula

tion

liv

ing

in

extr

em

e p

overt

y (%

)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Can Business Help Achieve the MDGs?

MDG 8 Developing a Global Partnership for Development

Developing countries primary responsibility for achieving MDGs 1-7 – mobilising domestic resources, ensuring good governance, policy reforms and so on

Developed countries also have obligation (MDG 8) to help poorer countries achieve MDGs 1-7

Expand market access to increase trade – but discriminatory trade policies – eg high tariffs; agricultural subsidies in rich countries distorting world markets and so on

Better access to technological progress – eg bridging digital divide, access to HIV/AIDS treatment and other measures

More ODA – target 0.7% of GNI, Monterrey Consensus, yet many of richest economies giving less than half target

Can Business Help Achieve the MDGs?

Development and Business Development is multisectoral and multidisciplinary:

it 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 – eg infrastructureand capacity development big opportunity

Woman washing dishes in Nepal

1.2 billion of world’s 6.3 billion people live in extreme poverty

Can Business Help Achieve the MDGs?

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, Secretary General of the United Nations, Davos, 1999

“We have a responsibility to redefine the role of the corporation on a world stage – and to leverage our ability to impact individuals, companies, communities, nations for the better. We must remake our businesses to be far more active corporate citizens – creators not only of shareholder value, but also of social value, in ways that are systemic and sustainable.”

Carly Fiona, Chief Executive Officer, Hewlett-Packard, New York, 2000

Can Business Help Achieve the MDGs?

The GC

UN’s global corporate citizenship initiative bringing together companies, NGOs and trade unions with common purpose of fostering action in support of universal values

Proposed by UN SG in 1999 and launched in NY in 2000 – 1,200 corporations from 70+ countries now involved from North and South countries

Voluntary initiative to induce corporate change by promoting corporate social responsibility (CSR)

Consumers’ perceptions of companies now determined as much by a company’s social and environmental practices as by its product brands (20 nation poll)

Can Business Help Achieve the MDGs?

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

Can Business Help Achieve the MDGs?

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

Can Business Help Achieve the MDGs?

GC Principles Promises of Business Partners

Human rights To support, respect and protect human rights No complicity in human rights abuses

Labour rights To recognise collective bargaining To avoid forced or compulsory labour To refrain from employing child labour To eliminate discrimination in hiring and firing policies

Environmental management A precautionary approach to environmental challenges Greater environmental responsibility To encourage use of environmentally friendly technologies

Can Business Help Achieve the MDGs?

Engaging Through GC

Policy Dialogue Facilitate mutual understanding and advocacy to

help solve global development challenges

Learning Internet forum for sharing experiences through

presentations, examples or case studies, managed in GC Office http://www.unglobalcompact.org/Portal

Projects towards achieving MDGs With technical and financial support from, inter alia,

business sector and operationalised through UNDP

Can Business Help Achieve the MDGs?

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

Can Business Help Achieve the MDGs?

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”

SG’s Commission on the Private Sector and Development – Unleashing Entrepreneurship: Making Business Work for the Poor

http://www.unglobalcompact.org/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/com.sapportals.km.docs/ungc_html_content/NewsDocs/CPSD_text_Eng_FINAL.pdf

Potential for businesses in Singapore, in partnership with UNDP, to launch the GC and CSR projects to, inter alia, support South-South development initiatives

Can Business Help Achieve the MDGs?

Epilogue“The future is full of promise as it is fraught with uncertainty. The industrial society is giving way to one based on knowledge. … we must learn and be part of the knowledge-based world. That we have succeeded in the last three decades does not ensure our doing so in the future. However, we stand a better chance of not failing if we abide by the basic principles that have helped us progress: social cohesion through sharing the benefits of progress, equal opportunities for all and meritocracy … “

Lee Kuan Yew, “From Third World To First”, Singapore, 2000