Working with the UN, particularly the Global Compact office, provides a framework for global corporate citizenship. In an address to The World Economic Forum in 1999, the Secretary-General challenged business leaders to join an international initiative - the Global Compact - that would bring companies together with UN agencies, labor and civil society to support nine principles in the areas of human rights, labor and the environment.
Through collective action, the Global Compact seeks to advance responsible corporate citizenship so that business can be part of the solution to the challenges of globalization. In this way, the private sector - in partnership with other social actors - can help realize a more sustainable and inclusive global economy. Today, over 1,000 companies from all regions of the world, as well as international labor and civil society organizations, are engaged in the Global Compact.