© gppi 2005 contact: [email protected] business unusual: facilitating united nations...
TRANSCRIPT
© GPPi 2005
Contact: [email protected]
www.globalpublicpolicy.net
Business UNusual:Facilitating United Nations
Reform through Partnerships
Presentation at Business Unusual Conference
13 December 2005
Jan Martin Witte
2
Good corporate citizenship and reputation are the most important drivers behind business engagement in partnerships
Rating of factors for decision to join partnerships (in percent)
0
22
88
4 5
2448
2Increasing reputation
2
Improving the investmentenvironment
17
Individual leadership
13
10
44
30
7
3634
149
100%
Meeting governmentrequirements
15
34837
Showing goodcorporate citizenship
35
Very important Important
Neutral
Fairlyimportant
Notimportant
3
Almost 80 percent of participating companies see partnerships as important for their future business success
Strongly Agree
Agree
Disagree17
62
19
2
Strongly Disagree
"Partnerships with the UN will become more and more important for my company´s future business success." (answers in percent, n=145)
4
One possible way of categorizing partnerships is along their functional role
Function Advocacy Developing rules, norms and standards
Sharing and coordinating resources
Harnessing markets for development
Examples • Health in your hands
• Mondialogo
Contribution • Place issues on global agenda
• Prepare the ground for action
• Fill gover-nance gaps
• Increase in-clusiveness and accoun-tability
• Exploit economies of scale in knowledge generation
• Build capacity
• Provide access to markets
• Bridge or deepen markets
• GRI
• Who cares wins
• Training Judges in Venezuela
• Stop TB
• Shea Butter in Burkina Faso
• Microinsurance
5
Research highlights importance of local ownership and tie to core competencies for impact, sustainability and scale
Impact, Sustainability and Scale
Local ownership
• Substantial influence of beneficiaries
• Implementation through local partners
Partnerships as investments
• Build on expertise and core competencies of partners
• Impact assessment• ...
6
Almost half respondents do not think it easy to build partnerships with the UN; less than a third sees the UN as effective
Very effective
Effective
Fairlyeffective
2
26
65
6
Not at all effectiveStrongly Agree
Agree
Disagree
7
54
40
2
Strongly disagree
"It is easy to build partnerships with the UN" (n=129)
"How effective is the UN in responding to partnership requests by business?" (n=125)
7
The United Nations faces a set of challenges
• Applying legal guidelines effectively and efficiently
• Selecting partners in a coherent and transparent process
• Ensuring sufficient coordination in the UN
• Building capacity in country and regional offices
8
Outlook and action agenda
1. Foster interface skills
2. Introduce systematic Impact assessment
3. Promote cross-fertilization and learning
9
Bureaucracy and lack of understanding of corporate culture seen as most significant impediments for the UN to be an effective partner
Rating of factors (in percent)
21
39
2Bureaucracy
16
5
Lack of coordination
17
23
28
28
Lack of understanding 40
4424
Lack of skills
28
11
41
43
11
6
23
100%
Lack of Leadership
8
14
40
8
157
5
30
8
6
11
Lack of resources
Very important Important Neutral
Fairlyimportant
Not im-portant
10
Most participating firms have more than 500 employees
More than 500
Between 250 and 500
Less than 250
71
3
26
Number of employees of participating firms (in percent, n=149)
11
Survey respondents come from all industry sectors
Sectoral affiliation of participating companies (number of companies, n=221*)
Retail
Natural Resources
21Engineering
19Banking and Finance
19Technology
13Health and Medicine
13Telecoms
11Building and Construction
11
6
Transport
Agriculture and Fisheries
22
8
24
Media
46
Professional Services
Industrials
8
* Multiple answers possible
12
Length of participation in Global Compact is evenly distributed
More than three years
One to three yearsLess than a year
32
3335
Years of involvement in partnerships (in percent, n=147)