ABSTRACT
Companies in diverse sectors around the world face increasingly complex risks and opportunities for shareholder value and project success linked to social and environmental issues. Telenor, the Norwegian telecommunications company, was approached by the famous micro-finance organisation Grameen Bank, and encouraged to supply mobile phone services to the poor of Bangladesh. Expatriates operating overseas can often secure advice and assistance from their home-country embassy and, occasionally, this may even go beyond securing illicit duty-free alcohol for a party. Ambassadors are normally drawn from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and will be specifically charged with supporting British commercial interests. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) also has a partnership project, deliberately kept small for some of the political reasons, called Global Sustainable Business for Poverty Reduction. The UN itself has formed the Global Compact, which nearly 2,000 corporations have now joined but this is more an expression of intent to act as good corporate citizens.
