Opportunities for Partnership with Private Sector – Corporate Social Responsibility

United Nations Development Programme

What is a company?

A predatory tiger to be shot

A cow to be milked

The strong horse that pulls the whole cart

Business

• The problem

• Part of the solution

• A precondition for reaching the MDGs

Business

• How can business contribute?

• Companies see opportunities - others don’t!

Challenges

• Massive pressure to operate efficiently and to deliver shareholder value in an period of increased competition, economic downturn and uncertainty

• Growing pressure to operate accountably and transparently in a period of increased global activism and public distrust

• Growing pressure to operate ethically and deliver societal value in a period of increased global challenges and expectations

Boundaries: The role of business

• Acting lawfully

• Producing safe products and services

• Paying taxes

• Providing investment

• Creating opportunities for wealth creation

• Commercializing new technologies

• Minimizing negative social and environmental impacts

• Contributing to local communities

Boundaries: The role of business

In many developing countries the daily challenges are created by:

• Inadequate legal frameworks and governance structures

• Weak, authoritarian, or failing public sector institutions

• Bribery and corruption

• Human rights violations

• High levels of poverty and inequality

• Lack of access to basic services

• Strict press controls

• Existing or potential civil conflict

• Antagonism towards foreign investors and western consumerism

Boundaries

Do good

Do no harm

Business

The concept of CSR

Multi-dimensional!

The concept of CSR

Sustainability vs Protectionism

Regulation vs Voluntarism

Reporting vs Action

Accountability vs Taking Responsibility

Quantitative vs Qualitative

Standard vs Unique

Transparent vs Verification

The commercial interests

Just as the private sector is critical to the future of the developing world, the developing world is critical to the future of big business.

• Four out of every five consumers already live there• 82 million of the 83 million people being added to

the planet every year are in developing countries