Big Business Leaders Pledge to Make Globalisation Force for Good

Coca-Cola and Fuji Xerox were just some of the global corporations that signed up to a new UN declaration to make globalisation more beneficial to the world's poor.

Hundreds of top executives subscribed to the 21-point Geneva Declaration at the end of last week as they took part in the second UN Global Compact Leaders Summit. The declaration outlines a strategy of action for business, governments and UN Global Compact participants.

In adopting the declaration, the business leaders pledge to meet 10 universal principles related to labour, human rights, environmental and anti-corruption standards.

Around 4,000 organisations from across 116 nations have already signed up to the Global Compact, which calls for businesses to ensure that globalisation is used as a force for good.

"Poverty, income inequality, protectionism and the absence of decent work opportunities pose serious threats to world peace and markets," it reads. "Business, as a key agent of globalisation, can be an enormous force for good."

The declaration also compels companies to commit themselves to corporate citizenship, and to the creation and delivery of value. This, the UN hopes, will help make globalisation more values-oriented.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that market leadership and sustainability leadership go hand-in-hand.

"This will help us build the supportive measures needed to create more sustainable markets. And it will ultimately help improve the lives of many people around the world," he said.

During the summit, the heads of six corporations, including The Coca-Cola Company, Levi Strauss and Nestlé, also called on fellow corporate leaders to take immediate action to address the global water crisis as they launched the "CEO Water Mandate". The mandate will help companies make their water consumption more efficient.