More Related Content
Similar to Speech to the Australian Council for International Development Annual Conference (20)
Speech to the Australian Council for International Development Annual Conference
- 1. Speech to the Australian Council For International Development Annual Council 2012 Canberra, the Australian Capital Territory 11th October 2012 Matthew Tukaki, Australian Representative to the United Nations Global Compact Speech background: This speech copy is embargoed until 8am on the morning of the 11th of October 2012. The speech is (was) delivered at the annual conference / council meeting of the Australian Council for International Development. Mr Tukaki was also a member of a panel convened by Don Henry of the Conservation Foundation to discuss the outcomes of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development also known as Rio+20. Matthew Tukaki is the Australian Representative to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) with the UNGC being the world’s largest corporate citizenship initiative. Mr Tukaki is also the current CEO and Executive Chairman of the Sustain Group in Australia, Director of the Board of the Australian Indigenous Chamber of Commerce, Suicide Prevention Australian and the Advisory Board of Deakin Universities Centre for Sustainable and Responsible Organisations. Matthew is previously the Regional Head of Drake, one of the world’s oldest and most respected employment and human resources companies. He is also a former Chairman of the Government Policy Advisory Panel, the CIO Council and the Skills for Schools Program. For information or commentary about this speech please contact [email protected] or call Matthew Tukaki directly on 0415 093 137 in Australia or from overseas on +61 415 093 137. Speech begins: Good morning ladies and gentlemen and thank you very much for that warm welcome. I would like to begin by acknowledging the local Indigenous people of this Canberra land and pay my respects to the elders and ancestors both past and present. Slide one: Opening Slide Last week when we had a conference call to talk about this session I think we all agreed that the topic itself is worthy of a full day as opposed to ten minutes and a panel discussion because there is just so much ground to cover that has relevance and importance to us all and not just a few. So, try as I will I am going to compact a lot into a few minutes and then be hopeful for a robust discussion during the panel and question and answer session. Specifically I am going to cover the business response to the sustainable development challenge and try and unpack why I believe Rio+20 was a success as opposed to the failure that has been reported out there. Before I do I need to provide some brief context about the role of the United Nations Global Compact and who we are. Slide two: About the Global Compact www.unglobalcompact.org.au
- 2. On the cusp of the new millennium former Secretary General Kofi Annan took a message to the Davos World Economic Forum where he called on business and industry to embrace, support and enact a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labour standards and environmental practices. It was a call to arms by the Secretary General and recognition that business should and must play a role in a world that is increasingly fragile, in various states of social and economic development, states of conflict of war, differences of opinion and intolerance. The United Nations Global Compact was born. Today, under our chief architect, Georg Kell, we have grown to more than 8,500 signatories across 135 countries that make up our planets largest corporations, industry groups, union movements, micro enterprises and financial institutions. By 2020 we aim to have more than 20,000 businesses of all sizes and from all geographies involved. It is our planets single largest corporate citizenship initiative. At our heart sit four fundamental and universal Principles whereby business must communicate their progress on each annually – Human Rights, Anti- Corruption, the Environment and Labour. Here in Australia there are more than 300 signatories who are party to the Compact and a further 300 global organisations with operations in Australia. Over the course of this last 18 months more than 1200 individuals and organisations have attended one of our three leadership groups and we have gone to great lengths to enter into dialogue and partnerships with Government and the Non-Government sector to the point where our Signatories also include organisations such as the Diversity Council of Australia, World Vision and Fair Trade Australia and New Zealand. Slide three: the UNGC Convened the Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum Before we look forward we need to first look back for a moment. 25 years ago former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Brundtland, who later became the Director General of the World Health Organisation, presided over the World Commission on Environment and Development. In 1987 a report, widely known as the Brundtland Report was published and entitled “Our Common Future”. The Commission was one of the key driving factors for the establishment of the first Earth Summit in 1992 and what is known as Agenda 21. The first Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro and for the first time the linkages between social, economic and environmental development were drawn. In many ways you cannot alleviate poverty unless you are also able to grow an economy and create jobs, you cannot address issues dealing with the environment and social justice unless you first empower the people not to be subservient but to be independent and in order to achieve a sustainable future you must establish the necessary governance structures to support people and an economy as they move from poverty to empowerment. In many ways you cannot achieve a lasting solution unless we properly and consistently address the fundamental societal issues that lie at the very core of many of the great challenges we face today. In June this year, 25 years later and again in Rio, the world again came together with a focus on sustainable development. For many however, there was a belief that Rio+20 was wholly and solely about the climate change challenge, and as obviously as important as it is climate was not the core focus of the conference. This time the linkages, discussed by Brundtland, between social, economic and environmental development were much clearer. In a report entitled “Resilient People, Resilient Planet” co-authors Jacob Zuma and Tarja Halonen made it clear that in order to achieve a sustainable world, a future we all want that any recommendation and flow on from Rio+20 would require commitment and action from citizens across all sectors of society, from Heads of State and www.unglobalcompact.org.au
- 3. Government and local mayors to business executives, scientists, religious leaders, civil society activists and not least, the leaders of the next generation, today’s youth. In a world post the global financial crisis, where a lot of work needs to be done to rebuild the economies of nations states and regions there was a general view that Rio+20 was not a success. I can tell you from our view that is far from the truth. One of the key differences between the first Earth Summit in 1992 and Rio+20 in June of this year is the increasing role business and industry can and must play when it comes to some of the biggest challenges our planet faces, whether it is climate change, food and water security, population, education, health, poverty alleviation and the empowerment and independence of women, girls and indigenous people. As an equal partner at the table business and industry have, over these last 25 years, accepted more of the responsibility and accountability that participation brings. It used to be the case that civil society organisations and non-government operators were the main balancing actors in the debate and discussion, where business and industry have largely been viewed with suspicion in respect of their motivators for behavioural change. I should be very clear not every person or organisation in the sector is a good corporate citizen, there are certainly some out there that are driven more by profit that sound reasoning and there are still some that believe that climate change is all a bit of a story – but in the main, today, the vast majority are not of those views or opinions. another core outcome of Rio+20 was that fundamental and specific recognition that each of us play an important and equal role as symbiotic links in a chain just as there are links between the three pillars of social, economic and environmental development. Whether we operate here at home or a developing country abroad the very need to build and manage the business case for our social license to operate is fundamental. Governments demand it, communities require it, our shareholders want it, our employees want to live it and as a CEO and Chairman, Director of any number of Boards I want to ensure we deliver it. Put simply a social license to operate is where we engage with the local community to ensure that while there are obvious commercial imperatives that we provide the very social and economic support programmes such as jobs, education and health, that will in themselves assist local communities grow. Good business is not about a win for the company and a loss for the community or the environment – it must be a win win for both, a partnership of equity and equality. Business and industry are and must be an owner and first responder when it comes to sustainable development both at home and abroad whether it be our supply chains in developing countries, or the very real influence we can bring to bear on nation states to improve their own behaviour – it is our responsibility and our present and future social license to operate depends on it. Slide Four: So what of RIO+20? So what was the business and industry response to the evolving and developing agenda of Rio+20? In 2010 at the UNGC Leaders Summit in New York and throughout the regional consultations with all 100 Local Networks (NB Burma had not yet been established) and the signatory base a view was taken that not only should we focus our energies on some core thematic areas, we needed to ensure we arrived at real outcomes that business and industry could lead, be involved in or partner with. Under the guise of sustainable development the agenda encompassed: www.unglobalcompact.org.au
- 4. ≥ Energy & Climate ≥ Water & Ecosystems ≥ Agriculture & Food ≥ Social Development ≥ Urbanization & Cities ≥ Economics & Finance of Sustainable Development Partnering with other UN Agencies and delivery organisations such as the UNEP, the ILO and the International Finance Corporation we then bought more than 2,500 business executives and leaders, organisational and institutional representatives together to begin unpacking what those real and tangible outcomes could be. One of the most bluntest of statements I myself made at the time is we need to shift the focus away from competing with each other, being critical of each other in line with the common cause. As crass as it might sound when a nation state crosses the border of another nation state we have all sorts of diplomatic problems and issues – yet when a business crosses a border we call it investment – therefore lets ensure we attach rules of engagement, support structures and principles once a business does get established offshore – particularly developing countries Slide five: The Objectives of Rio+20 from business We set ourselves some pretty big objectives. The first was to prove to colleauges and the world that corporate sustainability is an essential element in achieving sustainable development and the vice versa need for business to engage more with the UN System and for the UN System to recognise the important role of business. We want to demonstrate that principle based platforms are and do advance critical issues – that the process of having organisations commit to a series of outcomes and indicators can make a difference when it comes to everything from women’s empowerment to children’s rights and sustainable energy. We needed to ensure the message was clear that there can be no sustainable development without the inherent need to respect human rights – and that business have an equal and common role in that cause. The UNGC Network in Australia established our Human Rights Leadership Group more than two years ago to do just that. We needed and wanted to demonstrate that technological and social innovations could in fact provide the very solutions we are looking for when it comes to the many challenges we face today and that with investor and finance support we can actually arrive at those solutions a lot sooner. Hence the rise of social investment and social impact investing. In Rio the UNGC and the Rockefeller Foundation launched the new framework for action on social enterprise and impact investing. Slide six: continued Another key objective following on from or announcements around social enterprise and impact investing was to ensure that we included the roles played by stock exchanges, business schools and cities in stimulating the need by business to act upon sustainability. Of course, was the increasing need to ensure we also encouraged more companies and organisations to sign on to programs with actual reporting components as we have advanced through the global compact. I can tell you that by 2020 it is our goal and aspiration to more than double the signatory base to 20,000. In a few weeks- www.unglobalcompact.org.au
- 5. time I will travel to Sri Lanka as part of our global strategic leadership review group to begin ensuring we ourselves have the capacity to meet that number. Finally, and to me personally as Australia’s Representative to the UNGC was the need to ensure we mobilized a large and significant number of commitments to action by business and industry – that these commitments would arrive at real outcome.. Slide seven: Australian business involvement To help achieve these objectives Australian business and our own local signatory group played a significant role in Rio. We convened the panel known as the business response to the sustainability challenge where we took some of our best practice from corporates with operations in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Africa and South America and engaged with dialogue with our counterparts in the same industries and other countries. Joining with Indonesia and Japan we looked at common responses in returning an economy to production post a major natural disaster and the role business can play in the aftermath of events such as the Japan Earthquake or Boxing Day Tsunami. Together with Germany and Indonesia we took on the issue of Human Rights, Childrens Rights and the Empowerment of Women in society – all important to the broader task of sustainable development. Slide eight: water and ecosystems and natural capital More broadly 45 CEO’s of some of the planets major corporations involved in the UNGC Water Mandate took things further by agreeing to deepen and broaden their development of corporate water sustainability policies and practices. 37 banks, investment funds and insurance companies submitted a far reaching natural capital declaration whereby it becomes part of our business to ensure we integrate natural capital considerations into products and services. Slide nine: sustainable agriculture Together with a group of 16 leading companies in the food and agriculture sector we have recognised the need for food security across the planet and as a result need to ensure we commit to the development of principles on good practice and policy for sustainable agriculture. Slide ten: Involving stock exchanges – responsible Finally and as mentioned before the role that the finance sector can play when it comes to supporting the transition to a low carbon and green economy. So far 5 stock exchanges with more than 4.600 listed companies between them have now committed to promote long-term, sustainable investment in their markets while more than 70 businesses, national Governments and international organisations have endorsed the green industry platform. Slide Eleven: New guides and toolkits And, in support of these and all of our other initiatives both pre and post the Rio world we have moved to ensure we have toolkits and guides in place to work with business to implement and execute. But, be under no illusion while the appearance is that a lot of work has been done and I have the inherent belief that Rio+20 was a success the reality is there is still a lot more work to be www.unglobalcompact.org.au
- 6. done. For those who went to Rio expecting an answer and solution to the climate change challenge the fact is it will take time for global agreements to be put into place. It took us decades to formulate frameworks, rules, regulations and processes to develop our global trade framework that ultimately saw the establishment of the world trade organisation – it took that long because when you are dealing with more than 190 countries the process of negotiation is long and arduous. Anyone who tells you any differently themselves needs a reality check. My hope is that it doesn’t take as long. Where we can in fact begin to make a difference is by rethinking what aid means and who provides it. Is it just a Government or a nation state or should business also be called upon not through philanthropy but through the very thing I mentioned before, our social license to operate. Because under that license it is our role and requirement to provide jobs, assist with the development of local economies, empower women and the disadvantaged and to make a real difference so the investment itself makes a return – but a social return. On the environment the same is true. For as I said before unless we more clearly understand the fundamental links between social, economic and environmental development then we cannot adequately begin to solve the challenges we face. I trust that gives you a good but very brief snapshot and certainly wish you all well for the rest of your gathering. Speech ends www.unglobalcompact.org.au