Good afternoon. A pleasure to be with you. And join Liz and all of the hard work that she's put into the conference, along with the Oxford team.
So there are obviously ambiguities and contradictions in considering the private sector in the context of peacebuilding.
Quite often business is considered as a source of competition, extraction or even conflict.
So I acknowledge that tension and the difficult questions and histories that underlie it.
But here I'd like to consider business, as I'm not necessarily as a new actor, certainly, but as a positive actor for peace.
And so doing, I'm drawing upon my consulting work with the centre for International Private Enterprise in Washington,
DC, and with the UN Global Compact in New York.
Across the world, the private sector is adopting higher standards of ethical conduct,
along with greater scope of responsibility for social and environmental matters.
Much of this is being driven by stakeholder expectations,
including the workforce and the communities in which companies operate and the customers that they serve.
Another driver includes the expectations of ESG, with a focus on environmental, social and governance outcomes.
The ESG trend is also driven by harmonisation of sustainability standards and corporate reporting requirements.
Companies are striving to incorporate ESG factors into their strategies, operations, and key performance indicators.
Speaking of AI, this is a growth area in terms of developing the metrics and measurement for these kinds of factors.
While there's been certainly some recent political pressure on ESG,
the level of assets under management that takes ESG factors into account is really quite significant.
And I quote, according to one policy, for those of us that still remember, it's PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Asset managers globally are expected to increase their ESG related assets under management to U.S. dollars 33.9 trillion by 2026,
up from U.S. 18.4 trillion in 2021.
So again, in addition to standards for corporate responsibility,
you see essentially the financial dividend for supporting environmental, social and governance.
By that it means corporate governance factors. These developments can certainly contribute to the creation of stability and security more
directly through the United Nations Global Compacts Transformational Governance Initiative,
which we'll talk about in a few moments. Member companies are making express commitments to support SDG 16 on peace, justice and strong institutions.
Since I know some of you do not follow business developments very closely and might not exactly know what the UN Global Compact does,
although, of course, I've just followed a very distinguished member of Kofi Annan's team.
Uh, I'd like to just say a few words. And it was in July of 2000 when UN Secretary General Kofi Annan put forth a vision of a, quote,
a global compact of shared values and principles which would give a human face to the global market.
Now, interestingly, this statement itself was born out of a conflict,
indeed a crisis that took place in the state of Washington precipitated by this anti-globalization backlash.
This happened at a World Trade Organisation meeting, and later the Headlines and Time magazine wrote, quote, this was the battle for Seattle.
And perhaps somewhat surprisingly, a tariff setting body based in Geneva became a lightning rod for anti-globalization sentiment.
Since then,
the Global Compact has grown to become the world's largest corporate social responsibility initiative they refer to as a sustainability initiative.
Indeed, it is a global movement that involves more than 20,000 companies and over 160 countries.
It also involves, uh, several thousand non-business organisations.
And in terms of accountability, which is something that was demanded by civil society every year.
Each of those members must provide a very detailed and rigorous communication on progress,
essentially a report outlining how their actions have supported the ten principles of the Global Compact.
Although it's headquartered in New York, the UN Global Compact had the foresight to establish local networks around the world,
which are all interdependent, and these then bring the message to the local business community.
Host events, provide materials and so forth. And in fact, I might mention that the.
The, uh, the UK local network is really a phenomenal institution.
It's really worth looking at their website for the work that they do, um, including with some of the largest companies in the world.
So, in short, the UN Global Compact calls on business to align their strategies and operations with ten principles on human rights,
on labour, environment and anti-corruption.
So overall, what you can see is that tries to support action and impact to shape the world we want.
And those of you who follow you on activities will know that.
That was the phraseology for the global survey that asks the question, what kind of world do we want?
And based on those answers, a rigorous analysis was undertaken by the UN,
which developed then the Sustainable Development Goals, the 17 goals, uh, of the SDGs.
So today, I'd like to briefly comment on five themes that support this overall notion of a positive stance for the private sector in the peace space.
First, private sector values, culture and trust.
Second, business support for human rights. Third, the significance of corporate purpose.
Fourth, the shared space between civil society and business.
In other words, the role of justice defenders. And finally SDG 16 on transformation on governance.
So as far as private sector values throughout the private sector, leaders are increasingly affirming values and shaping organisational culture.
I was interested to find that in the United States,
the national organisation Association of Corporate Directors characterises culture as a corporate asset and urges the board,
the CEO and Syria and the senior management of the company to clarify foundational elements and values.
In the UK, the Corporate Governance and Codes provides.
The board should establish the company's purpose, values and strategy and satisfy itself that these and culture are aligned.
All directors must act with integrity by example and promote the desired culture.
So these improvements in corporate governance and compliance, along with business outcomes are being taken up by various sectors.
There is a priority on transparency, integrity, accountability and in addition,
shareholder engagement itself, which focuses on a shared sense of values between the company and community.
So this is becoming ever more central to business conduct.
Moreover, the commitment to values and to corporate culture really encourages a longer term time horizon,
looking beyond the proverbial quarterly financial results to a long term sense of value creation.
So this can encourage investment in human, social and natural capital.
It also demands a rigorous assessment of risks and including, of course, the corporate reputation.
This long term perspective can also lead to greater organisational resilience and commercial opportunities,
and could also contribute to stability in operating environments as well as supply chain.
So another key feature that can contribute to peace building is trust.
Ensuring this consistent alignment between corporate values and corporate actions promotes trust in business relationships,
whether with workers, customers, suppliers, or others.
More broadly, it's interesting to find that this values driven approach itself can strengthen trust between business, government and civil society.
Over several years, research performed by the Edelman Trust Barometer has found that business has
maintained its position as the most trusted institution the company's CEO maintains.
Quote, business must now be the stabilising force delivering tangible action results on society's most critical issues.
Societal leadership is now a core function of business.
The second point is on business support for human rights.
The main driver behind really an entire movement for business and human rights has been the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights,
developed with great care by Professor John Rugby of Harvard University.
This became in 2011, the first globally authoritative statement about the responsibilities in this context of business and human rights.
And so the UN GP's, as we call them for short, established three responsibilities and I think immediate you see the relevance to the piece context.
First, the state duty to protect human rights.
Second, the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, and third,
the shared obligation to provide access to remedy for victims of business related human rights harms.
So the UN GP's have been. Picked up by numerous other standards.
The OECD was mentioned a few minutes ago. These also formed part of the OBC guidelines for multinational corporations.
It's important to perhaps recognise the GP's do not prescribe any kind of package of legislation or fixed requirements,
but rather sort of a mix of measures that states nation states determine on their own.
But they want to ensure that the duty to prevent harm is addressed and that business, human or related human rights abuses have remedy.
And in addition, one interesting development has been because of this remedy language.
New mediation practices have come into play to, uh, settle disputes on these questions of business and human rights.
Um, also, benchmarking is taking place.
In other words, measuring different companies in different territories against their human rights practices,
which clarify some of the industry risk and related issues.
So we can see how some of these remedies and this whole perspective, both the prevention,
the respect for rights and the mitigation of disputes can really contribute to peace.
So, you know, GP's been taken up by governments, companies, civil society organisations and interestingly,
multinational corporations passed some of these obligations to their supply chains.
So that magnifies the impact.
And in addition, there's increasing legislation and regulation, including at the EU level, um, due diligence in the supply chain.
So there is very rigorous attention on exactly what is happening in the supply chain.
So this has helped confer, well, at least address some of the problems of forced labour, of child labour, of human trafficking and of modern slavery.
There's an annual forum on business and human rights held in Geneva.
It is one of the largest events that is held at the United Nations, bringing together all sorts of stakeholders.
So annually, that also creates an atmosphere of sharing best practices, uh, encouraging collaboration and joint problem solving.
The implementation of the UN GP's, even though that's a separate initiative,
also informs the human rights language contained in the UN Global Compact.
Next, the significance of corporate purpose. Various initiatives seek to redefine the role of corporations in society.
And one key idea pertains to this fundamental understanding of business purpose.
In 2019, this was in the United States. The Business Roundtable organised effort for 181 of its members,
all CEOs of major U.S. corporations, to adopt a statement on the purpose of the corporation.
They declared that companies should serve not only their shareholders,
but also and and also that point of maximising shareholder return, but also their stakeholders and deliver social benefits.
And that statement garnered extraordinary attention across, uh, literally every single media outlet.
It signalled some sort of change. In 2018, the British Academy launched an ambitious research and engagement program on the future of the corporation,
led by Professor Colin Meyer, who was previously the dean of the business school here, uh, at Oxford.
And now he's based at the at BSG at the Blavatnik School.
It is divine,
the purpose of the corporation and I quote profitably solving the problems of people and planet and not profiting from creating problems.
Now, that is a very powerful conceptualisation. Of course, the company must make a profit.
That is what it is. It is not an NGO. It is not a charity, is not civil society.
It is a profit making enterprise.
But here you have this sense of solve problems and don't contribute to problems.
So again, I think there is a linkage to creating the kind of environment that is conducive to peace.
The Academy's Principles for Purposeful Business examine accountability, input and implementation,
as well as reforms related to corporate governance, regulation, ownership, measurement, performance, finance, and investment.
So something perhaps worth having a look at in terms of arguing about the positive role of business in the peace space.
Next, the shared space between civil society and business.
So civil society actors as well as companies depend on legal and institutional frameworks that define the shared space where they operate.
Civil society cannot flourish. Business cannot fried outside of these frameworks.
There was a report published that involved several organisations, uh, called Shared Space Under Pressure.
Business support for civic freedoms and human rights defenders.
Quote successful sustainable business and investment environments require accountable governance bound by the.
Rule of law. Such environments can only be maintained when the rights that define the shared space.
Freedom of expression, assembly, association are respected and protected.
These elements allow other human rights to be realised and importantly for business.
They also foster innovation and entrepreneurship, offering that freedom to create value and generate both economic profit and social benefit.
So the report, which is also cited in a project for the centre for International Private Enterprise on the notion of constructive capital.
Holds that this had shared space is now under pressure literally around the world, and attacks on human rights defenders are increasing.
Long standing democracies are backsliding.
So among these trends, various stakeholders are calling on businesses to join forces with civil society in defending the shared space,
essentially calling on business to be the voices and forces for civic freedoms and to help defend human rights defenders and justice defenders,
whether it's in their own operations and supply chains or actually in a broader context.
So you can see how this strategy for defending justice offers another avenue to promote peace and stability.
FDA 16 the private sector offers support for the UN Sustainable Development Agenda and its 17 goals, and various ways.
You're probably familiar with the charts that you have seen.
Uh, with all the logos, I'm wearing a pin that has ESG, um, logos attached to it.
Um, the charts are very colourful, and probably each of you has a favourite SDG that you focus on.
They look something like this. So the one that I'm focusing at is SDG 16 peace, justice and Strong Institutions.
And it's been fascinating to see how the business community has rallied around these SDGs and tried to match whatever
the company may be involved with for the maximum benefit to support a particular SDG and also new collaborations.
It could be added here also that that support can feed in to the ESG that I mentioned,
environmental social governance factors, which then makes the company more attractive to investors.
In 2020, on the 75th anniversary of the United Nations and the 20th anniversary of the Global Compact,
the U.N. just the issued a statement from business leaders for renewed global cooperation.
More than a thousand CEOs from companies in over 100 different countries demonstrated
their support for the United Nations and global cooperations through peace,
justice and strong institution. I think it might be worthwhile to make a little side note here about rule of law itself,
because the Global Compact addresses questions of the rule of law and governance through its Action Platform on Peace,
justice and Strong Institutions.
A maintenance uh initiative began many years ago, long before the SDGs, to look at how business and the rule of law interrelate.
And eventually this has emerged over time to transformational governance,
which is a collaborative effort that is aligned with the ten principles of the UN Global Compact and the UN Sustainable Development Goals,
particularly SD 16. I'd like to just mention a couple of the factors that feature in a definition of the rule of law.
This comes from the World of Justice project, which does an amazing job of not only defining and researching rule of law,
but actually measuring rule of law in countries around the world and benchmarking them and rating them.
So for principles one, accountability.
The government as well as private actors are accountable under law.
Next, universal principle two just law.
The law is clear. Public thrives, stable and is applied evenly.
It ensures human rights as well as property, contract and procedural rights.
Number three open government.
The processes by which the law is adopted, administered, adjudicated,
enforced are accessible, fair and efficient, and number four, accessible and impartial.
Justice. Justice is delivered timely by competent, ethical and independent representatives and neutrals who are accessible,
have resources and reflect the make up of the communities they serve.
At the same time, the U.
The World Justice Project and others have shown that there is a massive deficit, deficit and access to justice around the world.
So this project, um, I'm finishing up now at this point, um, at SDG 16 and the private sector.
So a business framework was developed that would help companies embrace transformational governance,
which is a principles based approach calling on business to be more accountable,
ethical, inclusive and transparent as a driver of responsible business,
enhance ESG performance, and importantly, strengthen public institutions, laws and systems.
It also shows how companies can actually take concrete measures to support each of the SDG elements, and also support cross-functional engagement.
Online, you'll find a host of resources, including specific examples of what companies have done.
This has been, um, developed further in, I think,
Lab on Transformational Governance that was launched in 2022 with consultations from C-suite leaders,
board members, corporate council and other experts helping identify risks,
having dialogue with civil society and looking to how to demonstrate leadership,
um, leadership, business leadership and time of crisis is just one example of the many, uh,
pieces of research and literature that are available on the subject to help
understand better transformational governance and the risks that can be addressed.
Um, additional briefs, corporate boards and executive leadership, responsible government engagement, investing and transformational governance.
And now looking at the formation of the Chief Legal Officers Coalition, a network, uh, for shared practices and peer learning.
Another milestone which was just mentioned is this question of the summit of the future.
So that is also going to be another opportunity to focus, um, SG 16 and what it could help accomplish.
So there are various business opportunities to support, uh,
the ten principles of the UN Global Compact to support Transformational Governance and also SDG 16 peace, justice and strong institutions.
Thank you very much.