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I used the Tarrot cards to tell me where some money was. I used the tarrot cards to suggest the best course for getting it. I have that money
Too many businesses neglecting human rights, corruption concerns – UN survey
14 June 2010 – Corruption and human rights issues continue to be neglected by companies despite ongoing interest in United Nations-led efforts to ensure ethical corporate conduct, according to the findings of a new survey by a global initiative that seeks to foster responsible business practices.
Ban urges corporations to enhance partnership with UN for social development
23 June 2010 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon tonight urged corporate executives to strengthen their engagement with the United Nations in its efforts to help countries achieve the internationally-agreed social development and poverty alleviation goals before their target date of 2015.
“This is a moment of transition and uncertainty. The private sector knows this as well as anyone. Your businesses are on the front lines. From Wall Street to Main Street, from boardroom tables to kitchen tables, from national capitals to capital markets, people look for sustainable growth and sustainable development. “With your engagement, with your recommitment here at this summit, we can build a new era of sustainability,” the Secretary-General added. The number of companies participating in the Global Compact has risen from 40 initially to more than 8,000, Mr. Ban observed, saying that it was an indication that more business leaders accepted the idea that principles and profits complement each other.
Enhancing Partnership Value - A Tool for Assessing Sustainability and Impact
The Partnerships
1. The Kimberley Process is a joint government, international diamond industry and civil society initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds. Partners include the World Diamond Council (industry – De Beers), several NGOs (Global Witness, Amnesty International, Partnership Africa Canada as leads) and governments.
2. The Diamond Development Initiative – an initiative that seeks to address, in a comprehensive way, the political, social and economic challenges facing the artisanal diamond mining sector in order to optimize the beneficial development impact. Partners include De Beers, Partnership Africa Canada, World Bank, International Diamond Manufacturers Association, Global Witness and Rapaport Group.
3. The Mwadui Community Diamond Partnership, focusing on poverty alleviation and acceleration of sustainable socio-economic development in communities around the Williamson diamond mine in Mwadui, Tanzania, through the development of a multi-stakeholder partnership to formalise, transform and support artisanal and small scale mining communities. Partners include De Beers with Government of Tanzania for the initial diagnostic phase – becoming broader based during implementation phasesThe value of using the tool.
An interesting tool both at project development stage helping to ensure that the necessary issues and challenges have been addressed in a multi disciplinary way. Also allows for a retrospective view for ongoing projects – potentially an assurance mechanism.
Most significant/challenging aspects
The tool can be applied to a wide range of partnerships as it strikes a balance between the need to cover as wide a range of challenges and questions as possible without being too long, whilst at the same time not being too broad in scope and risk becoming irrelevant.
What will it take to make it widely used?
Third party endorsements should be sought in addition to testimonials where the tool has been used successfully. The UN should encourage case studies where the tool has been used at the inception stage to understand if the scope of a proposed project is sufficient to meet the goals. The tool can also be used at an intermediate stage to ensure a project is on track and at the end of a project as a post mortem tool to see what was missing.
De Beers will be experimenting with the tool using both the DDI and Mwadui projects. Whilst these projects are already underway they still face many issues and challenges. We will be using the tool as a methodology to test the robustness of both projects.