BATH, UK and BONN, GERMANY - Enhancing Business-Community Relations, a new report by United Nations Volunteers and New Academy of Business, has just been released. UNV and New Academy began an action research project in 2001 to support healthy business-community relations and enhanced corporate citizenship practices at the local level in economically developing countries. The project employed locally based 'UNV Specialists', who linked on-the-ground research with partnership development and joint analysis through a process of collaborative inquiry. This work took place in Brazil, Ghana, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Philippines and South Africa. The new global report synthesises the outputs from this work and is complemented by an extensive series of 70 case studies and seven country reports that describe these diverse experiences.

Enhancing Business-Community Relations explores practices being used by businesses and communities to improve their relationships as they recognize the mutually dependent dimensions of their success. It also argues that knowing how to deal with this deep interdependence brings uncertainty and contradiction for both parties. Many businesses continue to struggle to balance partnership and domination approaches in their relationships with communities. Similarly, communities are often caught between assessing the benefits of satisfying current needs versus achieving longer-term development aims.

Building on the field experiences of the joint project, Enhancing Business-Community Relations expands its inquiry to look at the contribution of volunteerism to this challenge. In a process where learning about a common future is increasingly grounded in direct engagement and reciprocity, rather than detached rhetoric and broad posturing, the spirit and energy of volunteerism can be a vital anchoring point.

The report concludes with an exploration of UNV's role in enhancing business-community relationships, in the context of the developmental objectives of the UN and its growing engagement with the private sector. UNV is well placed to develop skills in processes of dialogue and reflective learning, which could help cultivate healthy business-community relationships. Using such skills in combination with practices of volunteering, UNV has a capacity to support the efforts of groups in communities and companies to work creatively with the inherent tensions of being in interdependent relationships.

Rupesh Shah, co-author of the report, says "This project asks significant questions about how people can experiment with forms of learning, leadership and partnering that take account of the reality of shared destiny between businesses and communities."

The report is available to download from www.new-academy.ac.uk and www.unv.org. Hard copies may be obtained from UNV or New Academy of Business.

About the New Academy of Business
The New Academy of Business is an educational organisation committed to transforming business and management practice through education and research. We create innovative learning events, materials and processes to explore social, ethical and environmental questions, helping entrepreneurs, leaders, managers, workers and students respond to sustainability and organisational responsibility.
Demand for our work is linked to sustainable development and business responsibility, through for example, human rights, gender and diversity, small enterprise development, multi-stakeholder partnerships, participation processes, future leadership and governance.

We develop insights into these complex issues through people-centred learning approaches. Based upon continuous cycles of reflective observation, experimentation and practical application, we seek to create new understandings that support personal and organisational change.

About UNV
Based in Bonn, Germany, the UN Volunteers (UNV) programme is the UN organization that supports sustainable human development globally through the promotion of volunteerism, including the mobilization of volunteers. As a part of its activities, each year, UNV provides the opportunity for over 5,500 skilled and experienced professionals, 70 per cent of who are from developing countries, to support peace, relief and development initiatives in some 140 countries. In addition, it engages thousands of other individuals in the work of the United Nations as online volunteers and manages the WorldVolunteerWeb, a global volunteering portal that serves as a knowledge resource base for campaigning, advocacy, information dissemination and networking. UNV is administered by the United Nations Development Programme.

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