© GPPi 2005

Contact: gpp@globalpublicpolicy.net

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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)