ABSTRACT
In January 1999, in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the then United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan challenged the business community to adopt what he called a Global Compact. He proposed that business and the UN jointly initiate a ‘global compact of shared values and principles, to give a human face to the global market’. The following year the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) was formally launched at the UN and there were some 40 international companies who, in letters to the Secretary-General, made a commitment to applying the principles in their day-to-day operations. As a bridge between the UN and business, the governance of the UNGC is complex. The UNGC has grown to be far the largest organisation of companies committed to applying environmental, social and governance principles in their day-to-day work. The most important of the initiatives of UNGC is perhaps the UN Global Compact Local Networks.
