UN-Business Partnerships: Opportunities and Challenges

UN-Business Partnerships:
Opportunities and Challenges
UN Private Sector Focal Point Conference
26-27 May 2005
Jan Martin Witte
Associate Director
Contact: gpp@globalpublicpolicy.net
www.globalpublicpolicy.net
© GPPi 2005

Key findings
1
2
3
4
Local ownership and good management are critical to partnership
success.
The United Nations often lacks appropriate incentives systems and
capabilities, both individual and institutional, to help foster local
ownership and good partnership management.
The business community regards partnerships with the United Nations
as critical to future business success. However, they also characterize
the United Nations as a weak partnership player.
The United Nations needs to take a number of steps in order to remove
barriers for more effective and impact-oriented partnerships.
1

Agenda
• Partnerships and the UN: Key issues
• The business perspective
• Action agenda
2

The political debate is on, the jury is still out
3

One possible way of categorizing partnerships is along their functional
role
Function Advocacy Developing rules,
norms and
standards
Sharing and
coordinating
resources
Harnessing
markets for
development
Examples
• Health in your
hands
• Mondialogo
• GRI
• Who cares
wins
• Judges in
Venezuela
• Stop TB
• Shea Butter
Burkina Faso
• Microinsurance
Contribution
• Place issues
on global
agenda
• Prepare the
ground for
action
• Fill governance
gaps
• Increase inclusiveness
and accountability
• Exploit
economies of
scale in
knowledge
generation
• Build capacity
• Provide
access to
markets
• Bridge or
deepen
markets
4

Research highlights importance of local ownership and strong
partnership managements as key
Local ownership
• Substantial influence of
beneficiaries
• Implementation through local
partners
Strong management
• Clear goals and objectives
• Efficient and transparent
partner selection process
• Clear roles and
responsibilities
• Impact assessment
• ...
Sustainable and impact-oriented partnerships
5

The United Nations lacks the incentives and capabilities to contribute
to local ownership and strong partnership management
Mission alignment
Institutional
Incentives and resources
• Additional resources from
donors for partnerships
• Effective coordination in
the UN system
Capabilities
• Impact assessment tools
• Practical legal guidelines
• System-wide learning
• ...
Individual
• Time and other resources
for developing
partnerships
• Continual education offers
• Recognition
• ...
• Business experience
• Partnership brokering
skills
6

Agenda
• Partnerships and the UN: Key issues
• The business perspective
• Action agenda
7

The length of a company's membership in the Global Compact has an
important influence on the number of partnerships it is involved in
Years of membership in the Global Compact and number of partnerships (n=147)
Years of membership
in the Global
Compact
Number of partnerships
None 1 2 or 3 4 or 5 >5
Less than 1 year
19
19
10
1
2
1 to 3 years
14
11
20
2 2
More than 3 years
6
12
12
10 7
8

Almost 80 percent of participating companies see partnerships as
important for their future business success
"Partnerships with the UN will become more and more important for my company´s
future business success." (answers in percent, n=145)
Strongly Agree
17
Strongly Disagree
2
Disagree
19
62
Agree
9

Good corporate citizenship and reputation are the most important
drivers behind business engagement in partnerships
Rating of factors for decision to join partnerships (in percent)
Showing good
corporate citizenship
Increasing reputation
Very important
37
49
Important
48
44
Neutral
10
Not
important
Fairly
important
7
1
0
32
Individual leadership
34
36
22
4 5
Improving the investment
environment
13
48
24
8
8
Meeting government
requirements
17
35
30
2
15
100%
10

Almost half respondents do not think it easy to build partnerships with
the UN; less than a third sees the UN as effective
"It is easy to build partnerships
with the UN" (n=129)
"How effective is the UN in responding to
partnership requests by business?" (n=125)
Strongly Agree Strongly disagree
7 2
Very effective
2
Not at all effective
6
Effective
26
40
Disagree
Agree
54
65
Fairly
effective
11

Bureaucracy and lack of understanding of corporate culture seen as
most significant impediments for the UN to be an effective partner
Rating of factors (in percent)
Fairly
important
Not important
Very important Important Neutral
Bureaucracy
23
43
28
5
2
Lack of understanding 23
40
21
11
5
Lack of coordination
16
41
28
8
6
Lack of resources
17
30
39
6
8
Lack of skills
7
28
40
11
15
Lack of Leadership
11
24
44
14
8
100%
12

Agenda
• Partnerships and the UN: Key issues
• The business perspective
• Action agenda
13

Action agenda
1. Build capacity in country offices
2. Promote training, at all levels
3. Streamline guidelines for partnerships
4. Improve coherence and practicality of partner selection process
5. Build the foundation for smart selectivity through systematic impact
assessment
6. Foster system-wide learning
14

Additional material
15

Partnerships opportunities structured both by UNSG and individual UN
body guidelines
Overall UNSG value
framework
• General principles
• Use of UN logo
and emblem
• ...
• ...
"Partnerships are
voluntary and
collaborative
relationships between
various parties, both
State and non-State, in
which all participants
agree to work together to
achieve a common
purpose or undertake a
specific task and to share
risks and
responsibilities,
resources and benefits"
Detailed agency
guidelines
• Goals and
objectives
• Partner selection
process
• Operational
workflows
• ...
• ...
16

Most participating firms have more than 500 employees
Number of employees of participating firms (in percent, n=149)
Less than 250
26
Between 250 and 500
3
71
More than 500
17

Survey respondents come from all industry sectors
Sectoral affiliation of participating companies (number of companies, n=221*)
Industrials
Retail
Natural Resources
Engineering
Banking and Finance
Technology
Health and Medicine
Telecoms
Building and Construction
Transport
Agriculture and Fisheries
Professional Services
Media
6
8
8
13
13
11
11
24
22
21
19
19
46
* Multiple answers possible
18

Length of participation in Global Compact is evenly distributed
Years of involvement in partnerships (in percent, n=147)
Less than a year
35
33
One to three years
32
More than three years
19

Bureaucracy and lack of understanding seen as most significant
impediments for the UN to be an effective partner
Rating of factors (in percent)
Fairly
important
Not important
Very important Important Neutral
Bureaucracy
23
43
28
5
2
Lack of understanding 23
40
21
11
5
Lack of coordination
16
41
28
8
6
Lack of resources
17
30
39
6
8
Lack of skills
7
28
40
11
15
Lack of Leadership
11
24
44
14
8
100%
20

Companies who view partnerships as important for future business
also have a more involved top management
Correlation of importance given to partnerships and involvement of senior management
(in percent of each category)
"Partnerships will
become increasingly
important"
"We discuss partnership issues with our senior
management"
Regularly
Irregularly Not at all
Strongly agree 78
17
4
Agree
45
45
9
Disagree
20
60
20
Strongly disagree
33
0
67
21