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Presentation to the European private sector consultation on
implementation of the UN post-2015 development agenda
Tim Wall, Senior Policy Adviser, UN Global Compact,
Bratislava, Slovakia, 16 June2014
I wish to thank especially the Government of Slovakia for hosting this event; the
organizers from the UN Development Group and the UN Industrial Development
Organization; and Spain and the United States for their generous support.
Ladies and gentlemen,
As the labours of the General Assembly’s Open Working Group on the Sustainable
Development Goals nears a conclusion prior to the September 2014 plenary,
questions as to the magnitude and range of private sector engagement, as to its
reliability as a development partner, and on how to capitalize on public-private
collaboration while still maintaining the integrity of distinct roles remain at the
heart of negotiations on the UN’s post-MDGs agenda.
With national networks in 102 countries, the UN Global Compact carried out
extensive consultations on this prospective agenda in 2013, including meetings
among participant businesses in 43 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin
America. These formed the basis for a report requested by the office of the United
Nations Secretary-General, including a proto-set of sustainable development goals
and targets and sketching in linkages with business, that was drawn up by a leading
edge of participating firms. In 2014, the question of how to implement such an
agenda is under discussion, once again in consultations that are local but, as a group,
span the planet, and are organized in close cooperation with UNIDO.
One clear takeaway is that there is a compact but still sizeable group of businesses
that already welcome the opportunity to be part of the solution to challenges
overhanging the conclusion of the MDGs.
These companies, many of which have aligned themselves with bedrock UN
principles when their CEOs signed up to the UN Global Compact, realize that in a
global economy the success or failure of development is probably the single most
influential factor determining the state of their business in the years to come. A new
set of SDGs would provide a framework for deciding which areas of engagement are
most important, and also a means whereby the actions of one company is amplified
through coordination with many others; and the contribution of the private sector
can complement leadership within the public sector.
There are furthermore indications that their numbers are growing and that
momentum is picking up.
As economic growth migrates to the South and the East, business is investing not
just to obtain cheap inputs, but mostly to build up markets and take part in them.
This means that they have an incentive to overcome bottlenecks – to train workers,
technicians and managers; support a healthy work force; contribute to dependable
infrastructure; maintain rather than degrade the viability of the natural
environment; and to reduce transaction costs brought on by corruption, illicit
money flows and other impediments to trade and investment.
For multi-nationals seeking to expand, as well as domestic corporations and SMEs,
and even the impoverished entrepreneurial class that sells goods and services in the
informal sector and the tillers of small-sized farms, poverty remains the biggest
obstacle to their success. Entailing low levels of consumption/purchasing power,
depletion of human capital, weakened work forces, consumption practices that take
a toll on the natural environment and undercutting stability, it is the antithesis of a
profitable business environment.
A rallying cry for global progress from the United Nations that takes into account
and welcomes the resources, skills and energies of companies can be an added force
for greater participation. Given the ubiquitous character of economic activity, this
engagement will be necessary to achieve a scalable and transformative effort
starting in 2015.
Even before speaking of partnerships, the contribution of privately and state-owned
enterprises in meeting consumer needs, heightening productivity, and creating jobs
– including those at higher levels of expertise and remuneration – should be
understood as one of the foundations for progress in the post-2015 era. So is the
growing trend toward aligning corporate practices with global objectives such as
those likely to be included in a new set of sustainable development goals.
The role of the private sector is not limited to simply “mobilizing resources”, as
some describe it. The importance of sustainable patterns of consumption and
production is highlighted as a standalone goal (number 12) in the proposal of the
Open Working Group, with clear indications of the need to obtain corporate
alignment. In fact, the role of the private sector extends as well across the spectrum
of the post-2015 agenda. Notably, the importance of business, partnerships and/or
private finance is cited as means of implementation in the Group’s paper in areas
including poverty, food and agriculture, health, women, energy, inclusive economic
growth and ecosystems.
In the interest of time, I would like to highlight only briefly a few of the features of
the role that the private sector can be expected to play.
1) Transparency is becoming part and parcel of the impulse to corporate
sustainability.
Companies are coming to understand that transparency in pursuit of universally or
widely accepted social goals engages customers, widens market access, builds
reputation and reduces risks. On the flip side of the coin, they are learning often the
hard way, that in an era of swift, universal communication, exploitation within their
own workplaces or along their supply chains or complicity in an environmental
disaster will bring a heavy penalty in the marketplace, and later in the courts. A key
to disciplined participation in a new development agenda lies within these dual
motivations.
2) Partnerships provide a means to increase the scale and range of corporate
contribution to sustainability. They allow private sector strengths to complement
necessary public sector limitations, and vice versa. Contrary to some perceptions,
partnerships are not magic bullets, and they require considerable effort and
precision of analysis among all parties if they are to succeed. But business and the
public sector over the past few decades have gained valuable experience in learning
how to collaborate. Major infrastructure, health, technology and service delivery
projects are now commonly managed as classic private-public partnerships.
Partnerships are often thought of as large-scale global set pieces tied in to static,
long-range targets. But the new paradigm is one of partnerships that take place
locally as well regionally or globally, can operate systemically and involve multiple
stakeholders, and are springing up in large numbers and diverse formats, often in
spontaneous and rapid response to new situations.
3) Advances in science and technology are high cards in the deck of the post-2015
agenda. They will provide means to take on challenges in terms of climate and
energy, meeting human needs and educating populaces. If disseminated widely,
such advances can exert a levelling influence on economic inequality among regions
and within countries. It is not even possible to guess what advances will transpire
between now and 2030, but it is a certainty that success or failure of the SDGs may
well depend on them.
Business occupies a pivotal position, as the source of most new inventions and
techniques, and as the transmission belt that brings discoveries from governmental
agencies or scientific or medical institutions to the wide public.
In consultations with business leaders in 2013 and in 2014, science and technology
are cited as keys to the post-MDGs agenda. It was asserted that the full potential of
progress and innovation in these fields would only be fully harnessed through
strategic public- private partnerships, again realizing the converging interests of
both sectors. Among business-proposed targets for the SDGs, modern and green
infrastructure, access to digital skills and technology, increases in agricultural
productivity, further development of alternative energy sources, skilful use of egovernance and increased emphasis on research and development all figured
prominently.
4) Historically, trade has entailed not just the exchange of goods but also an
exchange of ideas, new values and new technologies. It generally has been the
means by which different part of the global population first came into touch with
each other, and remains a transmission belt of technology transfer and culture to
this day.
The current slowdown in new trade agreements and in progress on a global
development round of negotiations therefore not only undercuts the principle,
endorsed by the Open Working Group, of an open, universal, rules-based, nondiscriminatory and equitable multilateral trading and financial system, and the
economic benefits such a regimen entails. It also is placing a damper on technology
transfer and the build-up of skills that in the past has led to breakthroughs in fields
such as software production in India, biotechnology and solar energy in China, LCD
screens in Korea, cement construction in Mexico, and so on.
5) A reassertion of global unity in the economic arena would hopefully unleash
greater benefits from private sector activity. Ideally, this would be part of a wider
response to the breakdowns in global solidarity and renewed emergence of
parochialism and abrasive national differences.
It is to be hoped that agreement on the post-2015 agenda itself, and accompanying
set of SDGs, will rekindle the spirit of global solidarity that animated the UN in its
founding and in its finest moments. The General Assembly meeting in September of
2015, which it is hoped will settle on SDGs of global reach and responsibility, can be
a milestone in reclaiming that spirit and building regaining momentum toward
global solidarity.
Thank you.