Klaus Leisinger becomes Special Advisor on UN Global Compact
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appoints Prof. Dr. Leisinger, President and CEO of the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development, as his Special Advisor on the Global Compact.
September 29, 2005 - Reporting directly to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Prof. Dr. Leisinger will act as an ambassador to the Global Compact and advance critical issues relevant to the initiative. The aim of the UN Global Compact is to encourage businesses to support and implement 10 principles in the areas of human, labor and environmental rights, as well as anti-corruption.
I see this appointment as a recognition of the pioneering leadership of Novartis in the implementation of the UN Global Compact. I am proud of the formidable corporate citizenship achievements of Novartis, which will lend me great credibility in my capacity as Special Advisor.
Klaus Leisinger
As part of his mandate, Klaus Leisinger will promote corporate responsibility in industrialized and developing countries to a wide audience affected by the subject (inter alia managers, journalists, and NGOs). This will take the form of presentations and participation in seminars and panels, with the practical aim to demonstrate how companies can actually implement the Compact’s principles.
Novartis, which became an early signatory in 2000, has used the Global Compact as a basis for introducing a comprehensive package of corporate citizenship guidelines that form an integral part of its management processes and are anchored in its training and compliance programs. Tens of thousands of working hours are spent each year on UNGC implementation (training, information and monitoring) throughout the company.
According to Georg Kell, UNGC Executive Head, Novartis can be considered as a "global pioneer" as regards the way it has implemented the Global Compact so far.
Yet, the implementation of the Compact is work in progress and Prof. Dr. Leisinger emphasizes that this is an open-ended process with no completion date. Rather, it is based on ongoing, sustainable improvement. “It's clear that in a company that employs over 90,000 people, there will always be someone somewhere who thinks the Global Compact doesn’t apply to him or her. What is important is that the company makes it clear internally that it fully supports the 10 principles and aims to implement them as part of its corporate culture – and punishes any violations accordingly. We began with this a while ago at Novartis and have been making continuous progress ever since,” says Leisinger.
A native of Germany, Klaus Leisinger has been President and CEO of the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development since 2002. He is also Professor of Development Sociology at the University of Basel and serves as an advisor to various national and international organizations dealing with sustainable development. He regularly lectures on corporate ethics at institutions such as Harvard and MIT in the US.
Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development
Novartis and the UN Global Compact
UN Global Compact
The Global Compact asks companies to embrace, support and enact a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labor standards, the environment and anti-corruption. Through these commitments, Novartis accepts a broader role in society and in many cases goes beyond strictly legal duties.
In an address to the World Economic Forum on 31 January 1999, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan 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 universal environmental and social principles. Launched in 2000, now many hundreds of companies from all regions of the world, international labor and civil society organizations are engaged in the Global Compact, working to advance nine universal principles in the areas of human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption. The Global Compact is a direct initiative of the Secretary-General.
Through the power of collective action, the Global Compact seeks to promote 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 the Secretary-General’s vision: a more sustainable and inclusive global economy.
For more information on Novartis and the Global Compact click here