At the invitation of the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Unite Nations Global Compact Ms. Liz Kingo, IBC Deputy Chairman and Secretary General Mr. Saad Naji and IBC Director General participated on Monday and Tuesday June 15th and 16th 2020 in the virtual Summit of the leaders of the Global Compact which was held by the United Nations on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the United Nations declaration of the principles of the Global Compact.
A number of world leaders participated in the virtual Summit including the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the United Nations Secretary-General Mr. Antonio Guterres, dozens of senior executives and heads of United nations Agencies in the world, in addition to the President and Chief Executive Officer of the United Nations Global Compact Mrs. Liz Kingo.
The Summit addressed response of the private sector around the world to three unprecedented global crises; health, inequality and climate change, whereas international, regional and local sessions were held in the virtual Summit over 26 hours of continuous virtual programming.
The Summit was the largest, most comprehensive and sustainable United Nations meeting for business leaders where over twenty thousand business and sustainable development leaders from over 180 countries participated under the title “Better Recovery, Stronger Recovery and Recover Together”.
The importance of cooperation and partnerships between the public and private sectors to achieve goals of sustainable development was also highlighted.
The Summit aimed at enhancing awareness of the public sector in the global impacts imposed by the outbreak COVID-19 pandemic, and discussed how the public sector responded and interacted to contain the repercussions of this pandemic and ensure the continuity of its functioning.
During the Summit, the United Nations Global Compact launched business standards, which included an initial set of business standards for best practices to measure whether corporate activities aim at the necessary level of aspiration to achieve the goals of sustainable development (SDGS).
This declaration comes within the framework of “Aspiration of Sustainable Development Goals” Initiative, which aim at enabling the world leading companies to integrate the goals of sustainable development into the core business management.
During the Summit, Ms. Liz Kingo, President and Chief Executive Officer of the United Nations Global Compact, stressed that the United Nations Global Compact is an invitation for companies to align their strategies and operations with ten global principles relating to human rights, work, environment, countering corruption, taking actions that promote societal goals and implement goals of sustainable development (SDGS) through involving thousands of companies of various sizes and sectors all over the world, which work to mobilize a truly global movement of responsible institutions that integrate sustainability into their core strategies and operations, not only for the benefit of their communities, but also for their own benefit.
