Corporate Responsibility & Competitiveness

Corporate responsibility is the commitment of businesses to behave ethically and to contribute to sustainable economic development by working with all relevant stakeholders to improve their lives in ways that are good for business, the sustainable development agenda, and society at large.

Over the past decade, corporate responsibility (CR) and competitiveness has risen in global prominence and importance. Corporate governance scandals such as those at WorldCom, Enron, Parlamat, Daewoo, and Tyco profoundly affected major capital markets worldwide, and placed issues such as ethics, accountability, and transparency firmly on the business, regulation and policy agendas. Additionally, issues such as peace, sustainable development, security, poverty alleviation, environmental quality and human rights are becoming increasingly interlinked, and are having a profound effect on businesses and the business environment. Although not traditionally responsible for finding solutions to these challenges, it is in the private sector's best interest to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

Unfortunately, few companies, particularly in the developing world, have the skills or competencies to work in this new operating environment. Strategic capacity building is imperative in educating these businesses about CR, so they may access new markets and improve their competitiveness on a national, regional and global scale.