The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) is an initiative of the United Nations Secretary-General launched in 2000 which invites companies to align their policies and practices with Ten principles derived from internationally agreed standards in the area of human rights, labour, environment and corruption.
With over 18,000 signatories – mostly companies – representing nearly every sector in over 160 countries, the UNGC is currently the largest global corporate sustainability initiative.
The Commitment: What is required from UN Global Compact signatories?
– Commitment Letter to the UN Secretary General: All signatories to the UN Global Compact are required a commitment from their chief executive (or equivalent) to meet fundamental responsibilities in four areas: human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.
– Communication on Progress (CoP): The CoP is the annual disclosure through which participating companies show their commitment to the Ten Principles and the Sustainable Development Goals. The enhanced CoP will, among other things, help companies measure and demonstrate progress to stakeholders on the implementation and the alignment with the Ten Principles.
Structure and strategies
- UN Global Compact Board: The UN Global Compact Board, appointed and chaired by the United Nations Secretary-General, is designed as a multi-stakeholder body, providing ongoing strategic and policy advice for the initiative as a whole and making recommendations to the Global Compact Office, participants and other stakeholders. It comprises four constituency groups — business, civil society, labour and the United Nations.
Board members are champions willing and able to advance the mission of the UN Global Compact acting in a personal, honorary and unpaid capacity. Drawing in particular on the expertise and recommendations of its business members, the Board is also expected to play a role in the implementation of the initiative’s integrity measures. In addition to their overall Board responsibilities, the civil society and labour constituency groups are expected to provide close liaison to their communities and share insights into the most recent trends and best practices of corporate sustainability in their respective domains.
Composition of the board includes representatives of workers (International Trade Union Confederation and International Transport Workers’ Federation), business (International Organisation of Employers and International Chamber of Commerce) and civil society (Transparency International, WWF International, United World Colleges).
Global Compact Local Networks: Global Compact Local Networks advance the initiative and its Ten Principles at the country level. They help companies understand what responsible business means within different national, cultural and language contexts and facilitate outreach, learning, policy dialogue, collective action and partnerships. Through local networks, companies can make local connections – with other businesses and stakeholders from NGOs, government, employers workers organizations and academia – and receive guidance to put their sustainability commitments into action.
UN Global Compact Strategy 2021-2023 : The strategy and ambition are to take participants beyond the minimum, and onto a journey of demonstrated continuous improvement in the impact that they create. Over time, the UN Global Compact goal is to raise expectations of how businesses will embed all Ten Principles. These are intrinsic to a company and serve as the enabler for contributions towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement. The strategy will require the UN Global Compact to harness the impact of united and aligned collective action across all local networks, participants and stakeholders, and provide a platform for policy dialogue and advocacy.
UN Global Compact Africa Strategy 2021-2023 : The directions and perspectives incorporated in this strategy have resulted from a robust and inclusive process involving numerous extensive and rich discussions with the business sector in Africa represented by the Global Compact’s Local Networks. Interviews and workshops with executives and business leaders from African multinational corporations, leading national companies, and SMEs provided critical inputs into the unique and diverse needs of the sector. Consultations with other stakeholders, including governments, civil society, other United Nations agencies, and members of the Global Compact’s Government Group further strengthened the perspectives adopted in the strategy.
The strategy establishes that Global Compact Local Networks will facilitate policy dialogue guided by local priorities, seeking to integrate the voice of responsible business in key national SDG processes, organize policy dialogue around the Ten Principles and corporate sustainability such as CEO roundtables, and support governments to formulate effective and inclusive policies, such as development of national action plans.
UN Global Compact China Strategy : The process to develop the China strategy has involved interviews with more than 50 stakeholder groups both from China and globally. Also, one of the five key enablers of meaningful impact that the strategy includes is “stakeholder engagement”, including with the UN, governments and companies, industry associations, research institutions and think labs, professional service providers, partner organizations, investors and foundations.
Engagement opportunities
– Think Lab on Just Transition : The Think Lab on Just Transition aims to unravel the rationale of what it means for a company’s business strategy to support and engage in a just transition. It was launched at COP26 with the ILO and the ITUC, and is guided by existing efforts such as the ILO’s Just Transition Innovation Hub and the ITUC’s Just Transition Centre. Other partners include UNICEF, UNEP, IOE, Caring for Climate, Duke University, World Resources Institute, The B Team, Sustainable Energy for All and Disclosure Insight Action (CDP). The “Introduction to Just Transition – Business Brief” have a strong focus on the role of social dialogue in ensuring a just transition.
– Think lab on Living Wage : Launched with IDH-the sustainable trade initiative as the main partner, the Think Lab on Living Wage provides a platform to identify ways to encourage a growing number of companies to make ambitious commitments on living wage and mainstream the practice of integrating living wage into a company’s social sustainable strategy. The Think Lab also works with its participants to identify the needed steps in moving from commitment to implementation at country level by working with Global Compact Local Networks. Participants include companies who have made commitments on living wage as well as key stakeholders: ILO, IOE, Global Deal, Living Wage Foundation, Fair Wage Network, Shift, Business Coalition to Tackle Inequality.
The below publications highlight the key role of social dialogue – both in the form of collective bargaining and tripartite social dialogue — as part of the living wage process.
Becoming a living wage employer by paying all your employees — regardless of their employment status — a living wage. See: Achieving the Living Wage Ambition: Reference Sheet and Implementation Guidance. This guide is supporting companies that are participating in the SDG Ambition accelerator programme to pay “100% of employees across the organization earn a living wage”. The living wage target is one of 10 ambitions that aims to challenge participating companies in setting ambitious corporate targets and accelerating integration of the 17 SDGs into core business management.
Taking concrete actions to improve wages for the lowest-paid workers in the supply chain to advance decent work for all workers. See: Improving Wages to Advance Decent Work in Supply Chains . This microsite highlights lessons learned and best practices from companies and organizations on tackling low pay in supply chains and provides guidelines on concrete steps companies and their suppliers can take to improve wages globally.
– Anti-corruption Collective Action Projects: Collective Action is a process of cooperation between various stakeholders with the aim of jointly countering corruption. UN Global Compact collaborates with various organizations including Global Compact Local Networks to promote collective action efforts, aimed to increase business integrity, enhance transparency and bring the private sector, governments and civil society together to collectively advance the anti-corruption agenda and contribute to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (specifically SDG 16 and target 16.5 on fighting corruption). Collective Action projects entail dialogue and collaboration between businesses, governments and civil society, as well as Global Compact Local Networks.
Current projects:
Scaling up Anti-Corruption Collective Action within Global Compact Local Networks (four-year project launched in December 2019).
Advancing Collective Action Against Corruption through Global Compact Local Networks (three-year project launched in July 2021). Two of the main focuses are on enabling Local Networks to initiate and facilitate local and regional Collective Action Initiatives, and on scaling UNGC’s engagement in public-private policy dialogue to bring the private sector voice to the global anti-corruption agenda.
See “Promoting Anti-Corruption Collective Action through Global Compact Local Networks” for activities from 2010 to 2014 in Brazil, Egypt, India, Nigeria and South Africa.
See ‘Promoting Anti-Corruption Collective Action through Global Compact Local Networks” for subsequent activities in Brazil, Japan, Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt.