POSITIVE CORNER #32: Infrastructure for Responsible Business
The UN Global Compact (UNGC) was established in 2000 on the initiative of the then UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan. It is the world’s largest voluntary initiative for responsible business conduct and commits organisations to ten fundamental principles relating to human rights, labour standards, environmental protection and the fight against corruption, as well as to the Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
The growing participation shows that this global approach is increasingly being utilised as a practical framework: the number of participating organisations has risen from 44 at the outset to over 25,000 today. In addition, the UN Global Compact Academy, established in 2018, has developed into an international learning platform. It recently reached more than 200,000 users. This development points to a genuine and growing need for knowledge, exchange and the ability to put ideas into practice.
This global reach is supported by more than 60 country networks. They translate the universal principles into local contexts, connect companies and other local stakeholders, and transform a global framework into a community that can be put to practical use.
The UN Global Compact highlights a central element of responsible leadership: a focus on the common good cannot be scaled through attitude alone. It requires shared principles, concrete goals, global infrastructures, local networks, expertise, transparency and cooperation. It is precisely here that the Global Compact touches upon the ω-dimension of leadership. It broadens the horizons of individual organisations beyond their own success – towards the sustainability of the social, environmental and economic systems in which all organisations are equally embedded.
Responsibility thus gains greater reach, greater structure and greater connectivity worldwide. A sense of responsibility gives rise to change, in which learning, working and doing business together are carried out for the benefit of all. The infrastructure for this is growing and attracting increasing interest.
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