World Economic Forum Global Corporate Citizenship Initiative in partnership with Business for Social Responsibility (BSR).
Download the 20-page PDF from: BSR or this site
Preface (by Richard Samans)
Over the past 18 months, the World Economic Forum Global Corporate Citizenship Initiative (GCCI) Advisory Committee, which is composed of top corporate citizenship executives of leading Forum member companies, explored how companies can contribute constructively to efforts to improve public policy frameworks and the capacity of public institutions. The project has attempted to improve understanding of the business case for improved public governance and provide guidance on how businesses can engage in public-private efforts to strengthen the effectiveness of such frameworks and institutions. The outcome of these deliberations is a CEO leadership statement and supporting analysis that together provide a roadmap for business leaders seeking to work with governments to improve the enabling environment for sustainable economic growth and development.
Partnering to Strengthen Public Governance: The Leadership Challenge for CEOs and Boards builds on “Global Corporate Citizenship: The Leadership Challenge for CEOs and Boards”, a joint statement on global corporate citizenship signed by CEOs and chairmen of over 40 companies under the auspices of the World Economic Forum Global Corporate Citizenship Initiative in January 2002. Both leadership statements recommend frameworks for action, that offer practical steps chief executives, board directors and executive teams can draw upon in developing their firm’s corporate citizenship agenda. The rationale for business to engage in efforts to strengthen public governance is strong. Governance frameworks that enable sustained economic growth are far more likely to be developed if businesses collectively engage and capture the opportunities to align governance structures with their goals for
advancing sustainable business practices.
Demonstrating how weaknesses and shortcomings in public governance hinder business activity and sustainable economic growth, and providing examples of how businesses in partnership with governments and other stakeholders are helping to improve public governance, Partnering to Strengthen Public Governance: The Leadership Challenge for CEOs and Boards offers CEOs and boards of directors some guidance on the development of an effective engagement strategy on relevant public governance challenges.
The CEO-signed leadership statement and supporting report were produced in partnership with Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) – our lead partner in this project – as well as AccountAbility, the Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and The International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF). Special thanks are due to Aron Cramer, President and Chief Executive Officer, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), USA; Angel Gurría, Secretary-General, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris, who drafted the foreword; and the executives of the Global Corporate Citizenship Initiative (GCCI) Advisory Committee, members and other signatory companies, who provided the guidance and input on which the report is based. We are grateful for the helpful guidance and comments on the report provided by Jane Nelson and Simon Zadek. And we wish to express special appreciation to Associate Director Valerie Weinzierl, who managed the project very effectively on the Forum’s behalf, and her GCCI colleague, Senior Manager Christine Salerno, as well as to Janet Hill and Kamal Kimaoui for editing and layout of the report, respectively.
We at the World Economic Forum are particularly pleased to issue this report, which seeks to illuminate an important aspect of corporate global citizenship – a concept that lies at the very heart our organization’s mission. We hope that our partners, members and other constituent communities find it a useful tool for building public-private and multistakeholder collaborations to advance progress on global and regional problems.
Richard Samans, Managing Director, World Economic Forum