Global Public Policy Institute
Reinhardtstraße 15
10117 Berlin
Germany
Phone +49 30 275 959 75-0
Fax +49 30 690 88 200
E-Mail gppi@gppi.net
15 April 2011
GPPi presents on enhancing UN-business collaboration
GPPi Project Manager Wade Hoxtell served as a panelist on enhancing UN-business relations at the United Nations System Private Sector Focal Points Meeting, which took place from 12-13 April 2011 at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The event was co-hosted by the UN Global Compact, UNEP, UNFPA, WFP and UNESCO.
The conference aimed to enhance communication, strengthen learning, advance coordination and improve collaboration among UN private sector focal points, which refer to staff in various UN agencies responsible for engaging with the private sector. This year's meeting focused on a number of issues at both the global and country level, including:
- Management of the UN brand
- The effectiveness of the “One UN” approach for facilitating partnerships
- Establishment of joint due diligence processes
- Innovative funding mechanisms
- Value chain considerations
- Enhancing the UN-business partnership gateway (business.un.org)
Participants also explored a new concept of “transformational” partnerships, or collaborations that have lasting impact on a systemic issue, are scalable and are aligned with the core competencies of the partnering organizations.
Hoxtell’s presentation focused on three main issues. First, he presented a typology of the three main operational categories of UN-business partnerships: (a) core business and value chain partnerships, (b) strategic investment and philanthropy partnerships and (c) advocacy and public policy engagement partnerships. He also provided specific partnership examples for each category. Second, he went into detail on the evolution and maturation of UN-business partnerships by outlining various trends and institutional developments within the UN that have contributed to more strategic partnerships. Finally, he introduced the idea of transformational partnerships, tied this new concept into the existing partnership typology and stressed that these types of transformative collaborations represent a next step in the evolutionary process of UN-business partnerships.
Input from conference participants during the session will be integrated into the next Secretary-General’s report Towards Global Partnerships, to be authored by GPPi together with the UN Global Compact as part of the project Towards Global Partnerships: Development of the Secretary-General’s Report.
To download the meeting agenda, click here.
For more information, please contact Wade Hoxtell.