Can Business Help Achieve the Millennium Development Goals?

1. Can Business Help Achieve the Millennium Development Goals? Richard Leete UN Resident Coordinator for Malaysia UNDP Resident Representative for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei UNAS Singapore 12:03:04

2. 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

3. 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 system • Target 13 Manage debt relief and increase ODA • Target 14 Address the special needs of developing poorest countries • Target 15 Deal with developing countries’ debt problems • Target 16 Create productive youth employment • Target 17 Provide affordable medicine • Target 18 Spread benefits of new technologies

5. 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

6. 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 infrastructure and capacity development big opportunity Woman washing dishes in Nepal 1.2 billion of world’s 6.3 billion people live in extreme poverty

7. 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

8. 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)

9. 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

10. GC Goals • To make GCprinciples 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

11. 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

12. Engaging Through GC • Policy Dialogue • Facilitate mutual understanding and advocacy to help solve globaldevelopment 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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