Last month, the UN Global Compact unveiled a Call-to-Action in New York, urging businesses and governments worldwide to enhance governance and combat corruption.

The Call-to-Action underscores the importance of anti-corruption and good governance as foundations of a sustainable and inclusive global economy. It highlights their crucial role in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, urging governments to acknowledge and act upon this connection.

Corruption's impact is far-reaching and multifaceted. It inflates transaction costs, undermines fair competition, skews development priorities, hinders long-term investments, and erodes social solidarity. The private sector, including both enterprises and individuals, bears the brunt of these effects, stifling economic growth and social advancement.

In 2004, the UN Global Compact established its Tenth Principle, based on the UN Convention against Corruption. This principle requires participants not only to avoid bribery, extortion, and other corrupt practices, but also to proactively develop policies and programs to combat corruption internally and within their supply chains. The principle promotes collective action, encouraging companies to collaborate with civil society, the UN, and governments to create a transparent global economy.

By endorsing the Call-to-Action, companies will be publicly recognised as advocates, calling upon governments to:

• Rigorously implement the UN Convention against Corruption's tenets to establish a level playing field, enhancing policies, legal frameworks, and mechanisms to promote business integrity and address impunity through the detection and penalisation of malpractices.
• Integrate corporate sustainability criteria into government decision-making processes, particularly in investments and public procurement to foster SDG-focused business integrity. This also calls for increased transparency in public-private interactions to manage conflicts of interest and prevent undue influence.
• Encourage a Collective Action approach to strengthen governance and anti-corruption through public-private partnerships and inclusive dialogues, engaging all relevant stakeholders to devise innovative, inclusive solutions for the welfare of people and the planet.
• Utilise information and communication technology (ICT) and artificial intelligence to mitigate corruption risks, facilitate evidence-based decisions, enhance oversight, and fortify transparency. These technologies can also be employed to monitor, evaluate, and report governance and anti-corruption initiatives in both public and private sectors.
• Promote ethical leadership principles in education equipping future business leaders with skills that reinforce fairness and integrity, ensuring their adherence to these standards in tomorrow's workplaces.


The Call-to-Action was developed during the “Uniting Leaders for Business Integrity” session at the 2023 UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in New York. It is slated for presentation at the tenth session of the Conference of the States Parties (CoSP10) to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), scheduled for 11 to 15 December 2023, in Atlanta, USA.

Companies seeking further information about the Call-To-Action initiative, can visit the UN Global Compact website. Companies interested in signing the Call-to-Action form, can click here. To be included, the form needs to be completed and submitted by 1 December 2023.

The UN Global Compact, an initiative of the UN Secretary-General, calls upon companies worldwide to align their operations and strategies with Ten Principles concerning human rights, labour, environment, and anti-corruption. Its aim is to expedite and amplify the global collective impact of business by adhering to these principles and fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals through responsible companies and supportive ecosystems. With 18,000 corporate and 3,800+ non-business signatories across more than 160 countries, the UN Global Compact stands as the world's most extensive corporate sustainability initiative — a united pact for a better world.

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A participant in the UN Global Compact, CourtHeath seeks to raise awareness about the Sustainable Development Goals and the principles of the Global Compact with business and government organisations in Victoria.

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IMAGE: Used under licence from shutterstock.com

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