Business UNusual: Facilitating United Nations Reform through Partnerships

1. Business UNusual:Facilitating United NationsReform through Partnerships ILO Presentation 25 October 2005 Jan Martin Witte Associate Director

2. Agenda • Mandate, Objectives and Empirical Base • The UN and Partnerships: Trends & Challenges • From Output to Impact: An Action Agenda for the UN

3. Mandate, objectives and empirical base • Mandate • Commissioned by the United Nations Global Compact Office • Two outputs: • Draft report of the UN SG to the General Assembly (mandatory 2-year report on partnerships • Joint publication GPPi/UN Global Compact • Timeframe: Five months

4. Mandate, goals and empirical base • Objectives • Provide overview over political debate on partnerships • Review partnership case material; develop categorization • Review institutional developments in the United Nations in the context of partnership work • Offer practical recommendations for the United Nations to increase its capacity to get engaged in partnerships

5. Mandate, goals and empirical base • Empirical base • Review of 112 partnerships • 15 short case studies • Survey with 164 Global Compact participants • In-depth interviews with more than 60 practitioners from business, the United Nations, governments and civil society organizations

6. Agenda • Mandate, Objectives and Empirical Base • The UN and Partnerships: Trends & Challenges • From Output to Impact: An Action Agenda for the UN

7. 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 • GRI • Who cares wins • Training Judges in Venezuela • Stop TB • Shea Butter in Burkina Faso • Microinsurance • 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

8. Success Stories • HEALTH IN YOUR HANDS: • The Global Public Private Partnership • for Handwashing with Soap • Purpose: Issue advocacy • Objective: Persuade people in developing countries to wash their hands with soap • Means: Industrial marketing practices coupled with public health expertise • Actors: The World Bank, WHO, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Colgate Palmolive

9. Success Stories • ACCESS TO BASIC SERVICES FOR ALL • Purpose: Setting norms and standards for partnerships in health provision • Objective: Clarify what is expected of each stakeholder; create stable investment climate • Means: Multi-stakeholder negotiation process. • Actors: Water companies, local authorities, regulators, NGOs

10. Success Stories • MOVING THE WORLD: • Cooperation between TNT and WFP • Purpose: Sharing resources and capabilities • Objective: To provide emergency relief faster and more efficient • Means: Integration of planning systems; joint training; technology transfer • Actors: WFP and TNT

11. Success Stories • MICROINSURANCE: • Purpose: Fostering markets • Objective: Providing basic life insurance to the poor in India and Indonesia • Means: Annual fee of 80 cents; provision through local civil society organizations. • Actors: Allianz AG, Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), UNDP • Impact: provision of life insurance to 40,000 poor people in India

12. Research highlights importance of local ownership and strong partnership managements as key • Sustainable and impact-oriented partnerships • Local ownership • Substantial influence of beneficiaries • Implementation through local partners • Strong management • Clear goals and objectives • Efficient and transparent partner selection process • Clear roles and responsibilities • Impact assessment • ...

13. 8 • >5 • 4 or 5 • 2 or 3 • None • 1 The length of a company's membership in the Global Compact has an important influence on the number of partnerships it is involved in • Years of membership in the Global Compact and number of partnerships (n=147) • Years of member-ship in the Global Compact • Number of partnerships • Less than 1 year • 1 • 2 • 1 to 3 years • 2 • 2 • More than 3 years

14. 4 Almost 80 percent of participating companies see partnerships as important for their future business success • "Partnerships with the UN will become more and more important for my company´s future business success." (answers in percent, n=145) • Strongly Disagree • Strongly Agree • 2 • Disagree • 17 • 19 • 62 • Agree

15. 0 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) • Not • important • Neutral • Fairlyimportant • Very important • Important • Showing good • corporate citizenship • 49 • 44 • 7 • 1 • Increasing reputation • 37 • 48 • 10 • 3 • 2 • Individual leadership • 34 • 36 • 22 • 4 • 5 • Improving the investmentenvironment • 13 • 48 • 24 • 8 • 8 • Meeting governmentrequirements • 17 • 35 • 30 • 2 • 15 • 100%

16. Almost half respondents do not think it easy to build partnerships with the UN; less than a third sees the UN as effective • "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) • Strongly disagree • Very effective • Not at all effective • Strongly Agree • 2 • 2 • 6 • 7 • Effective • 26 • Disagree • 40 • 54 • Agree • 65 • Fairly • effective

17. 5 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) • Fairlyimportant • Not im-portant • Very important • Important • Neutral • Bureaucracy • 23 • 43 • 28 • 5 • 2 • Lack of understanding • 23 • 40 • 21 • 11 • 5 • Lack of coordination • 16 • 41 • 28 • 8 • 6 • Lack of resources • 17 • 30 • 39 • 6 • 8 • Lack of skills • 7 • 28 • 40 • 11 • 15 • Lack of Leadership • 11 • 24 • 44 • 14 • 8 • 100%

18. Agenda • Mandate, Objectives and Empirical Base • The UN and Partnerships: Trends & Challenges • From Output to Impact: An Action Agenda for the UN

19. Action agenda • Build capacity in country offices • Promote training, at all levels • Streamline guidelines for partnerships • Improve coherence and practicality of partner selection process • Build the foundation for smart selectivity through systematic impact assessment • Foster system-wide learning

20. Additional material

21. 181 Most participating firms have more than 500 employees • Number of employees of participating firms (in percent, n=149) • Between 250 and 500 • 3 • Less than 250 • 26 • 71 • More than 500

22. 3 Survey respondents come from all industry sectors • Sectoral affiliation of participating companies (number of companies, n=221*) • Industrials • 46 • Retail • 24 • Natural Resources • 22 • Engineering • 21 • Banking and Finance • 19 • Technology • 19 • Health and Medicine • 13 • Telecoms • 13 • Building and Construction • 11 • Transport • 11 • Agriculture and Fisheries • 8 • Professional Services • 8 • Media • 6 • * Multiple answers possible

23. 181 Length of participation in Global Compact is evenly distributed • Years of involvement in partnerships (in percent, n=147) • One to three years • Less than a year • 33 • 35 • 32 • More than three years