Membership in the UN Global Compact: South Africa

• United Nations' Secretary-General Kofi Anan first proposed the Global Compact (GC) in an address to the World Economic Form in January 1999. In July 2000 the operational phase was launched whereby business leaders were invited to join an international initiative—the GC—that would bring companies together with UN agencies, labour and civil society to advance universal social and environmental principles. Through the power of collective action, the GC seeks to advance responsible corporate citizenship so that business can be part of the solution to the challenges of globalisation. In this way, the private sector—in partnership with other social actors—can help realise a more sustainable and inclusive global economy. Today, companies from all regions of the world, international labour and civil society organisations are engaged in the GC. A voluntary corporate citizenship initiative, the GC pursues complementary objectives:
  • Making the GC and its principles part of business strategy and operations.
    
    
  • Facilitating cooperation among key stakeholders by promoting partnerships in support of UN goals.
    
    
• The GC is not a regulatory instrument but rather relies on public accountability, transparency and the enlightened self-interest of companies, labour and civil society to initiate and share substantive action in pursuing the principles upon which the GC is based.
  
  
• The GC is a network. At its core is the GC Office and six UN agencies: the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; the UN Environment Programme; the international Labour Organisation; the UN Development Programme; the UN Industrial Development Organisation; and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The GC involves all the relevant social actors: governments (which defined the principles on which the initiative is based); companies (whose actions it seeks to influence); labour (in whose hands the concrete process of global production takes place); civil society organisations (representing the wider community of stakeholders); and the UN (as an authoritative convener and facilitator).

The GCls principles enjoy universal consensus being derived from:

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
  
  
• The International Labour Organisation's Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work
  
  
• The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development
  
  
• The United Nations Convention Against Corruption
  
  
• The Global Compact asks companies to embrace, support and enact, within their sphere of influence, a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labour standards, the environment and anti-corruption:

Human Rights—Businesses should:
1. Support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights.
2. Make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.

Labour—Businesses should uphold:
3. The freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining.
4. The elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour.
5. The effective abolition of child labour.
6. The elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

Environment—Businesses are asked to:
7. Support a precautionary approach to environmental Challenges.
8. Undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility.
9. Encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.

Anti-Corruption
10. Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.

In becoming a member of the GC, Accenture SA agreed to commit to making the Global Compact and its principles part of the strategy, culture and day-to-day operations of our company and undertake to make a clear statement of this commitment—both to our employees, partners, clients and to the public. We also agreed to support public accountability and transparency and to report on progress made in a public manner.

South African organisations that have joined the GC
There are currently 28 organisations in South Africa that are members. Some of these are:

For further information go to: http://www.unglobalcompact.org/

Bruce A Dickson
Executive Officer: Corporate Citizenship