New York- The new Global Compact Board, the United Nation's high-level body involving business, civil society and labour, gathered at UN Headquarters in New York on Wednesday for its inaugural meeting.

The 20-member board, appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in April, was established following a comprehensive governance review of the world's largest voluntary corporate citizenship initiative. It is composed of ten private sector representatives, four representatives of international labour unions and employer organizations, as well as four civil society representatives. Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, the Chairman of the Foundation for the Global Compact, and Georg Kell, Executive Director of the Global Compact Office, serve as ex-officio members. (Please visit http://www.unglobalcompact.org/NewsAndEvents/news_archives/2006_04_20.html for a full list of board members)

Opening the meeting, the Secretary-General stressed the "enormous breadth of experience and reach" of the board members, which hail from Latin and North America, Africa, Europe and Asia. He expressed hope that the diversity of perspectives "will become a core strength" of the new body, enabling it "to find common ground, united in the shared objective of seeing the Compact succeed in its mission."

The Global Compact Board will provide strategic advice to the initiative as a whole and will also play a role with respect to the implementation of the Global Compact's integrity measures, which were implemented in 2005. Board members are further encouraged to support the initiative's fundraising efforts, become advocates of responsible business practices around the world and help in the preparations for the next Global Compact Leaders Summit, to be held on 27-28 June 2007 in Geneva.

A comprehensive report of the inaugural meeting of the Global Compact Board will be published on the Global Compact website (www.unglobalcompact.org) in early July.

About the Global Compact:

Launched in 2000, the UN Global Compact brings business together with UN agencies, labor, civil society and governments to advance ten universal principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. Through the power of collective action, the Global Compact seeks to mainstream these ten principles in business activities around the world and to catalyze actions in support of broader UN goals. With over 3300 participating companies and other stakeholders from more than 100 countries, it is the world's largest voluntary corporate citizenship initiative. For more information, please visit www.unglobalcompact.org.

United Nations Global Compact

United Nations Global Compact

As the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative, the United Nations Global Compact is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with Ten Principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Our ambition is to accelerate and scale the global collective impact of business by upholding the Ten Principles and delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through accountable companies and ecosystems that enable change. With the UN Global Compact, committed companies achieve sustainable value by delivering measurable impact to the world’s most pressing challenges. 

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