July 2007

SPECIAL EDITION

AccountAbility at the
United Nations Global Compact Leaders Summit 2007

The State of Responsible Competitiveness 2007

Report The State of Responsible Competitiveness 2007:
Making Sustainability Count in Global Markets
Successfully Launched

'The State of Responsible Competitiveness is the definitive guide for policy makers and business leaders to understand how markets are reshaped to reward competitiveness for the 21st Century.'
Hon.Al Gore, in the report’s foreword

On 6th July, Geneva played host to the United Nations Global Compact Leaders Summit 2007. At a Ministerial roundtable with Ministers from more than 25 different countries, the fourth bi-annual report on ‘Responsible Competitiveness’ was successfully launched. It is essentially a progress report on countries’ efforts in advancing competitiveness based on responsible business practices. This crucial report identifies the key characteristics of Responsible Competitiveness and steps towards achieving it.

‘The State of Responsible Competitiveness 2007: Making Sustainability Count in Global Markets’ includes a foreword from Al Gore and 15 essays on responsible competitiveness from experts such as Sir Nicholas Stern, Laura Tyson, Nick Butler, Peter Eigen and Jonathan Lash, as well as key constituency views on the need for more assertive policies in advancing this agenda, including Anwar Ibrahim, AccountAbility’s Honorary President and Malaysia’s former Deputy Prime Minister and Günter Verheugen, European Commission’s Vice President for Enterprise.

To see the list of essayists and the themes, please click here

The report also includes the Responsible Competitiveness Index which is a rating of 108 different countries and blends data from 21 authoritative sources in order to assess countries' progress in regards to advancing responsible business practices.

The State of Responsible Competitiveness 2007 report is published by AccountAbility, in association with the leading Brazilian business school Fundação Dom Cabral. The report is supported by Microsoft, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Agrisal and Fundemas.

‘The State of Responsible Competitiveness demonstrates the practical potential of responsible competitiveness strategies to deliver trade and investment, while striking the right balance between national and global interests, and public and private gain’. Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the WTO

For further information please visit www.accountability21.net

The Responsible Competitiveness Index

How Responsible is your Country?

Interact with the Responsible Competiveness World Map

The index covers 108 economies and over 96% of global GDP and combines 21 indicators from authoritative sources.

Some interesting stastics from the Responsible Competitiveness Index:

• Nordic countries dominate the list, with Sweden taking first spot.
• Thirteen of the 'Top 20' are European countries, with Asian high-scorers including Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore, and the US trailing at 18th position.
• Emerging economies perform within the top quartile like Chile, Malaysia and Rep.of Korea (24th, 25th and 27th respectively).
• Several European countries perform poorly, including Italy and Greece (33rd and 34th) and laggards Romania and Bulgaria (58th and 59th)
• South Africa leads the BRICS in 28th position, then Brazil, India, Russia and China trailing in 87th position.

For more information please contact: Paul Begley

Global Leadership Network

GLN launches joint initiative with the UNGC and the IFC at the UNGC Leaders Summit 2007

 

The United Nations Global Compact, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Global Leadership Network (GLN) have created a joint partnership to promote the integration of responsible business practices into core business strategy.

This unique partnership that combines the expertise of AccountAbility, the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, GLN's member companies and national networks and the UN Global Compact and the IFC, has created an open learning sytem to help companies around the world embed the Global Compact principles and key sustainability issues into strategy implementation. GLN OPEN ACCESS will provide Global Compact Signatories, IFC clients and the wider private sector with free access to GLN's interactive strategic planning tool and other learning resources to promote corporate sitizenship as a key driver of business success.

As part of this partnership, the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit 2007, saw the launch of the GLN Global Compact Implementation Tool, a powerful learning and benchmarking resource that helps Compact signatories significantly enhance the strategic value of the Global Compact principles.

The UN Global Compact GLN Implementation Tool

In particular, the GLN Global Compact Implementation Tool will help companies:

1. evaluate the strategic significance of the ten principles and other corporate citizenship issues to the company and stakeholders

2. identify critical priorities opportunities and risks

3. assess and benchmark performance in embedding the ten principles and corporate citizenship into the heart of the organisation.

4. provide the type of information, planning and goal setting that support Communications on progress and reporting.

" For corporate citizenship to deliver on its potential it must become fundamental to strategy and operations," says Steve Rochlin, Head of AccountAbility North America. " The partnership among GLN, the UN Global Compact, and IFC now enables companies around the world to reach this potential."

• To read the press release click here
• To watch Steve Rochlin's webcast from the UNGC please click here and scroll down to the end of the page
• For more information please visit www.globalleasdershipnetwork.org

For more information please contact: Aris Vrettos

The State of Responsible Competitiveness
in the Media

Engage with us

New Interactive Website

AccountAbility proudly invites you to visit its recently re-launched website. It is completely renovated and brings in its core some special features that gives it an interactive functionality that allows everyone to engage with us.

You will be able to blog, post comments on our latest news and updates and also interact with the Responsible Competitiveness World Map.

The link to it is the same! www.accountability21.net