Transcript Slide 1

Third UN Global Compact
Roundtable
Dr. El Sayed Torky
Advisor to the minster of investment for CSR
Managing Director ECRC
About ECRC
• ECRC is established as a national GC and CSR
center between the Ministry of Investment
and UNDP in 2008 under the umbrella of EIoD.
• ECRC acts as the focal point for the United
Nations Global Compact in Egypt in
partnership with Mansour Group.
• ECRC acts as Chair and Secretariat of MENAOECD Responsible Business Conduct Forum.
ECRC Vision
To
enhance
corporate
social
responsibility practices in order to make
a sustainable impact on businesses,
communities and the wider environment,
and to boost business commitment to
the United Nations Global Compact ten
universally accepted principles
ECRC Objectives
• Support the effective and professional increase of
corporate involvement in socially responsible
business activities.
• Promote awareness for effective corporate social
responsibility strategies within business units.
• Develop CSR codes and manuals that facilitate
the efficient execution of CSR strategies within
business practices.
• Build the capacities of companies and NGOs by
delivering internationally accredited training
programs,.
• Assist the companies to comply with labor and
environmental standards by enhancing
transparency and accountability.
• Create successful CSR business modules and
best practices, offering support to various
business sectors.
• Encourage, sustain and empower the Global
Compact Local Network of businesses within
Egypt.
Achievements and Action Plan
Creating new partnerships with :
1) German Arab Chamber of Commerce
2) Egyptian Junior Businessmen Association
3) Cairo Chamber of Commerce
4) British Egyptian Businessmen Association
5) MENA Investment Center of Bahrain
6) Family Development Foundation of UAE
• Preparing a CSR code
• Preparing CSR National Strategy
• Organizing training workshops in Egypt and in the
MENA region
• Preparing a GC case study
• prepare CSR successful stories
Overview of the UN Global Compact
• Launched by Kofi Annan in 1999, the UN Global
Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses
that are committed to aligning their operations and
strategies with ten universally accepted principles in
the areas of Human rights, Labor, Environment and
Anticorruption.
• Business, as a primary agent driving globalization, can
help ensure that markets, commerce, technology and
finance advance in ways that benefit economies and
societies everywhere.
• Over 7700 business participants and other stakeholders
from more than 130 countries,
Benefits of Participation
• Adopting an established and globally recognized
policy framework for the development,
implementation,
and
disclosure
of
environmental, social, and governance policies
and practices.
• A platform to share and exchange best and
emerging practices to advance practical solutions
and strategies to common challenges.
• The opportunity to advance sustainability
solutions in partnership with a range of
stakeholders,
• The opportunity to link business units and
subsidiaries across the value chain with the UN
Global Compact's Country Networks around the
world .
• Access to the United Nations' extensive
knowledge of and experience with sustainability
and development issues.
• Utilizing UN Global Compact management tools
and resources, and the opportunity to engage in
specialized work streams in the environmental,
social and governance realms
Communicating Progress
• One of the explicit commitments that a company
makes when it joins the UN Global Compact is to
produce an annual Communication on Progress
(COP). This is a requirement of participation
which serves several important purposes:
1. to encourage accountability;
2. to drive continuous improvement;
3. to contribute to the development of a repository of
corporate practices.
• A COP is a disclosure to stakeholders (e.g.,
investors, consumers, civil society, governments,
etc.) on progress made in implementing the ten
principles of the UN Global Compact, and in
supporting broad UN development goals.
• Business participants are required to annually
submit a COP on the UN Global Compact website
and to share the COP widely with their
stakeholders.
• While the format for a COP is flexible, it must
contain three important elements:
1. A statement by the CEO (or equivalent)
expressing continued support for the Global
Compact and renewing the participant's ongoing
commitment to the initiative and its principles;
2. A description of practical actions (i.e., activities
and, if applicable, policies) the company has
taken to implement the Global Compact
principles and to support broader development
goals. During the first five years of participation,
a COP must address at least two of the Global
Compact's principle issue areas, while all four
must be addressed after five years;
3. A measurement of outcomes (i.e., identify
targets, define performance indicators, or
measure outcomes).
• In addition, new business participants (joined
on or after 1 July 2009) are given one year
from the date of joining to prepare and submit
their first COP.
• Non-business participants are not required to
prepare and submit a COP on the UN Global
Compact website.
Local Networks
• Local networks are clusters of participants who
come together to advance the Global Compact
and its principles within a particular geographic
context.
• They perform increasingly important roles in
rooting the Global Compact within different
national, cultural and language contexts, and also
in helping to manage the organizational
consequences of the Compact’s rapid expansion.
• Their role is to facilitate the progress of
companies (both local firms and subsidiaries of
foreign corporations) engaged in the Compact
with respect to implementation of the ten
principles, while also creating opportunities for
multi-stakeholder engagement and collective
action.
• Furthermore, networks deepen the learning
experience of all participants through their own
activities and events and promote action in
support of broader UN goals.
• Local network representatives come together
for an annual meeting coordinated and
chaired by the Global Compact Office, which is
known as the Annual Local Networks Forum.
• The purpose of the Local Networks Forum is
for Local Networks to learn from each other’s
experiences in building a network, review and
compare progress, identify best practices and
adopt recommendations intended to enhance
the effectiveness of Local Networks, including
relating to governance.
•
Current Members (39)
Business (24)
•
– Aero Services Egypt (ASE)
– Alfa Misr for Industrial Investment
•
– Allied Soft
– Arab African Int’l Bank
– B.Tech- Olympic Stores for Trade and Distribution
– Cairo for Investment & Dev.
– CompuMe
•
– Consukorra
– EgyTrans
– Egyptian Traders Co.
– Environmental Quality Int’l
– Etisalat Misr
– Hashem Brothers
– Kasr El Salam Co.
– Mansour Group
– Misr Contracting Co.
– Namaa Real Estate
•
– Orascom Telecom
– Oriental Resorts for Touristic Development
– Raya Holding
– Sekem Group
– Talal Abu Ghazaleh
– TMA
– Vacsera
Government (1)
– The Cabinet for Information & Decision Support
Center
NGO’s/Organizations (4)
– Federation of Egyptian Industries
– Saveco Science & Environment Consultant
– UN Youth Club
– Welad Misr Association
Business Associations (8)
– American Chamber of Commerce
– Business Women Association for Development
– Cairo Chamber of Commerce
– Egyptian Pharmacists Syndicate
– Federation of Egyptian Industries
– German Arab Chamber of Industry and
Commerce
– Egyptian Junior Business Association
– Industrial Modernization Center (IMC)
Academic Institutions (2)
– Cairo University
– New Generation International Schools
UN Global Compact's Ten Principles
Human Rights
• Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the
protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and
• Principle 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human
rights abuses.
Labor Standards
• Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of
association and the effective recognition of the right to
collective bargaining;
• Principle 4: The elimination of all forms of forced and
compulsory labor;
• Principle 5: The effective abolition of child labor; and
• Principle 6: The elimination of discrimination in respect
of employment and occupation.
Environment
• Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary
approach to environmental challenges;
• Principle 8: Undertake initiatives to promote greater
environmental responsibility; and
• Principle 9: Encourage the development and diffusion
of environmentally friendly technologies.
Anti-Corruption
• Principle 10: Businesses should work against corruption
in all its forms, including extortion and bribery
Human Rights
• Principle 1: Businesses should support and
respect the protection of internationally
proclaimed human rights;
• Principle 2: Business should make sure that
they are not complicit in human rights abuses.
The first two principles of the UN Global
Compact are derived from the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
Why Human Rights Are Important for Business
• Governments have the primary responsibility for
human rights. However, individuals and organizations
also have important roles to play in supporting and
respecting human rights.
• The business community has a responsibility to
respect human rights, that is, not to violate human
rights.
• Operating context, company activities and
relationships can pose risks that the company might
negatively impact human rights, but they also
present opportunities to support or promote the
enjoyment of human rights while also advancing
one‘s business.
Addressing consumer concerns
• Access to global information means that
consumers are increasingly aware of where
their goods come from and the conditions
under which they are made.
• A proactive approach to human rights can
avoid problems and thus reduce the
potentially negative impacts of adverse
publicity from consumer organizations and
interest groups.
Supply chain management
• Global sourcing and manufacturing means that
companies need to be fully aware of potential
human rights issues both upstream and
downstream.
Increasing worker productivity and retention
• Workers who are treated with dignity and given
fair and just remuneration for their work are
more likely to be productive and remain loyal to
an employer.
• New recruits increasingly consider the social and
environmental record of companies when making
their choice of employer.
Respecting Human Rights
• Business must ensure that its operations are
consistent with the legal principles applicable in
the country of operation. If national law falls
short of international standards, companies
should strive to meet international standards and
not violate human rights.
• In the rare situation that national law directly
conflicts with international standards, companies
are not expected to violate national laws. Instead,
there may be other ways to support the spirit of
international human rights standards.
• Importantly, the corporate responsibility to
respect exists independently of States’
human rights duties. Among other things,
this means that businesses have a
responsibility to respect human rights
whether they are operating in an area of
weak governance or in a more stable
context. In areas where there is weak
governance, the risks of infringing human
rights may be greater because of the
context.
• It is also important to note that because the
responsibility to respect is a baseline
expectation,
a
company
cannot
compensate for infringing human rights in
one aspect of their business by performing
good deeds elsewhere, such as through
philanthropic acts, supporting human rights
in other areas or by good performance on
other issues, such as the environment.
Examples of how companies can support and respect human
rights through their daily activities
• In the workplace:
 by providing safe and healthy working
conditions,
 by guaranteeing freedom of association,
 by ensuring non-discrimination in personnel
practices,
 by ensuring that they do not use directly or
indirectly forced labor or child labor, and
PRINCIPLE TWO
Businesses should make sure they are not
complicit in human rights abuses
Complicity
• Complicity in human rights abuses occurs where
a corporation provides practical assistance,
encouragement or moral support that has a
substantial effect on the perpetration of the
abuse.
• Respecting human rights includes avoiding
complicity, which is another way, beyond their
own direct business activities, that businesses
risk interfering with the enjoyment of human
rights.
.
Complicity is generally made up of 2 elements:
 An act or omission (failure to act) by a
company, or individual representing a
company, that “helps” (facilitates, legitimizes,
assists, encourages, etc.) another, in some
way, to carry out a human rights abuse
 The knowledge by the company that its act or
omission could provide such help
Accusations of complicity can arise in a number of
contexts:
• Direct complicity — when a company provides
goods or services that it knows will be used to
carry out the abuse.
• Beneficial complicity — when a company
benefits from human rights abuses even if it did
not positively assist or cause them.
• Silent complicity — when the company is silent
or inactive in the face of systematic or continuous
human rights abuse.
(This is the most
controversial type of complicity.)
Possible Actions by Business
• An effective human rights policy will help
companies avoid being implicated in human
rights violations.
• In order to avoid such situations, companies
may wish to consider the following:
 Has the company made a human rights
assessment of the situation in countries where it
does, or intends to do, business so as to identify
the risk of involvement in human rights abuses
and the company's potential impact on the
situation?
 Does the company have explicit policies that
protect the human rights of workers in its direct
employment and throughout its supply chain?
 Has the company established a monitoring
system to ensure that its human rights policies
are being implemented?
 Does the company have an explicit policy to
ensure that its security arrangements do not
contribute to human rights violations? This
applies whether it provides its own security,
contracts it to others or in the case where
security is supplied by the State.
 Does the company actively engage in open
dialogue with human-rights organizations?
Women’s Empowerment Principles: Equality Means Business
A joint initiative of the UNIFEM and UN Global Compact
Women’s Empowerment Principles
1. Establish high‐level corporate leadership for
gender equality.
2. Treat all women and men fairly at work –
respect and support human rights and
nondiscrimination.
3. Ensure the health, safety and well‐being of all
women and men workers.
4. Promote education, training and professional
development for women.
5. Implement enterprise development, supply
chain and marketing practices that empower
women.
6.
Promote equality through community
initiatives and advocacy.
7. Measure and publicly report on progress to
achieve gender equality.