11.25.2003 ET

(CSRwire) NOVA LIMA, BRAZIL – The United Nations Global Compact will convene its third international Global Compact Annual Learning Forum Meeting on 9-11 December 2003 in Nova Lima, Brazil – an event that is expected to bring together hundreds of participants representing business, government, civil society, labour and academia.

The overall objective of the Global Compact Annual Learning Forum Meeting is to give Global Compact participants the opportunity to share good business practices and to identify and fill critical knowledge gaps on a range of social, environmental and development issues.

The meeting is open to all companies and other organizations participating in the Global Compact initiative, as well as to international media. A special website, www.fdc.org.br/learningforum/, provides detailed information on the meeting and includes a registration process for press.

“The annual Learning Forum Meetings have become truly international events with all key stakeholders represented”, said Georg Kell, Executive Head of the Global Compact. “Our decision to hold the meeting in Brazil is both recognition of the importance of the South in advancing corporate citizenship and of the commitment of Brazilian companies and organizations to the Global Compact”.

The meeting – which is being organized in partnership with Instituto ETHOS, Fundacao Dom Cabral, and the Federacao das Industrias do Estado de Minas Gerais – is designed to focus on the most relevant issues related to the Global Compact, including the implementation of the nine principles, structuring partnerships, and communicating progress made.

The event will also feature a 9 December “Latin American Workshop on Supply Chain Management”, an extension of the related Global Compact Policy Dialogue convened earlier in 2003.

In addition, the following special announcements and events are planned:

Responsible Competitiveness Index

AccountAbility and The Copenhagen Centre will announce the launch of the first Responsible Competitiveness Index that measures the contribution Corporate Responsibility makes to the competitiveness of nations. The launch will be take place on December 9th at 17:45 – 18:30 at the opening of the meeting.

The index provides policy makers, investors and business with the first systematic evaluation of the relevance of Corporate Responsibility at national levels at an important time when levels of governmental and corporate support for a diverse range of corporate responsibility practices are increasing. Critically, the results of the Responsible Competitiveness Index suggest that a number of countries, notably the US, China, Japan and Korea are likely to reduce their future competitiveness because of their failure to provide an enabling environment for Corporate Responsibility. The Responsible Competitiveness Index therefore enhances the explanatory power of existing competitiveness indices by factoring in aspects of Corporate Responsibility critical to macroeconomic growth.

The Index is the first product of an international Responsible Competitiveness Consortium of research and business institutions that will also be formally launched at this event.

GRI Latin American Round Table

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) will convene the first of six regional roundtables to gather feedback from all stakeholders on the 2002 GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. This roundtable will be held on 10 December in conjunction with the Global Compact Learning Forum Meeting. The regional roundtables are part of a three-year consultative process GRI is facilitating which will culminate in the release of the next version of the GRI Guidelines in 2005.
Learning Forum participants and other interested organisations are invited to this event to be held from 09:30 – 17:00 at Pathernon Vila da Serra (flat), Alameda da Serra, 405 – Nova Lima. To register for this roundtable and to find further details please visit www.globalreporting.org/sfp.

From the outset, GRI has committed to being a learning organisation. GRI recognises that sustainability reporting is a relatively new development and the GRI Guidelines and other documents must be continuously improved based on experience of use and feedback from all stakeholder groups.
Over 150 organisations from around the world have already provided feedback on the 2002 Guidelines through a detailed questionnaire. This feedback is being analysed and will be presented for further discussion and feedback at the workshop on 10 December.

About the UN Global Compact

Launched by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in July 2000, the United Nations Global Compact is a voluntary corporate-citizenship initiative that brings companies together with UN agencies, governments, international labor, civil society organizations and other groups to advance nine principles in the areas of human rights, labour and the environment. The vision of the Global Compact is to create a more inclusive and sustainable global economy. More than 1,000 companies worldwide are engaged in the Global Compact.


Other Contacts:

AccountAbility – (UK)
Mirahv Joseph
44-207-549-0400
mirahv@accountability.org.uk

Global Reporting Initiative – GRI (Netherlands)
Nancy Bennet
31–20 531-0015
bennet@globalreporting.org
Press contact: Alyson Slater
31-20-531-0001
slater@globalreporting.org

Global Compact Office – (Brazil)
Vivian Smith
55-11-3549-4665 – 55-11-3887-9514
smithv@un.org

For more information please contact: