DEVELOPMENT: UN Strengthens Partnership with Private Sector

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 2 2000 (IPS) - The United Nations, which spends about 3 billion dollars every year on goods and services, has established its first-ever formal business advisory council aimed at building a new global partnership with the private sector.

The Council has been created by the UN Office of Project Services (UNOPS), described as the only self-financing entity in the United Nations, which is mandated to implement projects on behalf of the UN system.

“The United Nations is open for business,” says UNOPS Executive Director Reinhart Helmke. “The creation of this landmark advisory body will ensure that UNOPS receives substantive input from the private sector in developing practical ways of engaging business to meet complex international trends.”

In 1998, US companies were the largest suppliers of goods and services to the United Nations and its various agencies, accounting for about 296 million dollars, followed by companies in Japan (141 million dollars), Panama (137 million dollars), Brazil (122 million dollars), the United Kingdom (119 million dollars), Belgium (108 million dollars) and France (108 million dollars).

The largest purchases in 1998 were made by the World Food Programme (565 million dollars), UNOPS (331 million dollars), the UN Children’s Fund (327 million dollars) and UN Procurement Division (248 million dollars). The goods and services range from office equipment and condoms to pharmaceuticals and foodstuffs.

Helmke said that the private sector, the United Nations and civil society have an equal stake in protecting and promoting shared values in human rights, labour and the environment.

At a meeting of civil society last week, some 1,350 representatives from over 1,000 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) called for a legally binding framework for regulating the actions of transnational corporations (TNCs). A proposed UN Code of Conduct for TNCs, which has been under discussion for more than a decade, has been held up primarily because of strong opposition from Western nations.

The meeting, officially called the Millennium Forum, also urged TNCs to respect the international labour, human rights and sustainable environment standards set by the United Nations and its relevant specialised agencies.

In its final declaration adopted unanimously on Friday, the NGOs asked the world body to “examine and regulate TNCs and the increasingly negative influence of their trade on the environment.”

What is at stake, says Helmke, is not philanthropy. “The UN is calling upon business to exercise responsibility by participating in a joint effort to reduce poverty, promote peace, and share technology and skills for the overall benefit of openness and sustained globalisation.”

Globalisation, he argues, provides the ideal environment for renewing the mutually beneficial partnership between the United Nations and business that lapsed during the Cold War.

“The UN and business are bound to work together,” he adds. “If global corporations fail to support the UN, they will face a closing world with disastrous consequences for the prosperity for all.”

UNOPS hosted a two-day seminar this week on how to build business partnerships between the United Nations and the private sector. The seminar was titled “The UN and Business: a Partnership for the New Millennium.” The participants included senior corporate executives, high ranking UN officials and representatives from development banks and business associations.

A particular focus was the role of the business community in the prevention of armed conflict and post-conflict reconstruction.

Dana G. Mead, head of the newly-established advisory council and former chairman and chief executive officer of Tenneco Inc, said the new council would put private sector tools to work in the public sector to bring the benefits of the global marketplace to the developing world.

“Working together, the UN and business can negotiate new norms for a global world,” he said. “This will mean creating concrete partnerships that help sustain globalisation by integrating the poorest countries into the process, promoting peace and growth, education and job training, and confronting the challenge of global disease such as AIDS.”

Illustrating the new relationship, the United Nations and business leaders announced several new joint projects in developing countries.

The US-based firm Peace Works has established a new enterprise in Guatemala where former combatants in the country’s 35-year-old civil war will together produce and market speciality food items and traditional arts and crafts.

Additionally, several international insurance companies, the UN, commercial de-mining firms and civil society will undertake the first major assessment of risk associated with mine clearance. The project is expected to help speed up and lower the cost of de- mining operations by giving operators and insurers a better understanding of the risks and how they can be managed.

The Swedish telecommunications company, Ericsson, has launched a new global initiative aimed at developing a faster, better response to human suffering caused by disasters. The ultimate objective is to ensure rapid deployment of communications solutions encompassing Ericsson technologies to support and respond to communications challenges of each disaster.

Meanwhile Secretary-General Kofi Annan challenged the private sector to adopt a “global compact” of shared values and principles in areas such as human rights, labour and the environment.