ToBI
Update:
ToBI Strategy for the World Summit
on Sustainable Development
August 14, 2001
Dear friends and colleagues,
After some time since the late ToBI Update, I am happy to report on
some of the recent developments taking place within the Taskforce and
to request your comments and ideas on efforts in the coming year
to continue moving forward ToBI's mission of promoting corporate accountability.
Corporate accountability and the World
Summit
The World Summit on Sustainable Development, taking place in September
2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa, will be the tenth anniversary of
the Earth Summit, as well as the tenth anniversary of the demise of
the UN Code on Transnational Corporations.
Corporate lobbyists played an important role in that demise, emhasizing
the increasing social responsibility of multinational corporations and
the need for governments and the United Nations to focus more on voluntary
initiatives to achieve the goals of sustainable development. At the
same time, they argued against what they described as the "command
and control" approach of more regulations and enforcement. Ten
years later business and industry groups continue to lobby governments
and the UN with the same message.
Corporations and the Implementation Crisis
Despite all the talk about "corporate social responsibility"
and "corporate citizenship," civil society organizations and
communities around the world remain frustrated with the wake of environmental
destruction, human rights abuses, violation of labor rights, health
threats and economic devastation to communities left by corporate globalization.
Despite the various "best practices" highlighting more ecoefficient
production processes, community improvement programs, and multistakeholder
dialogues, and despite the improved sustainablity rhetoric, many
public interest groups and concerned citizens note how corporations
and industry associations have also worked against the adoption
and implementation of sustainable development policies and values.
Ten years after the Earth Summit, many people want to know what their
governments and the United Nations are doing -- and not doing -- to
hold companies accountable for the damage they cause and what they are
doing to prevent further damage. Many of us especially want to know
how to persuade our governments to stop encouraging irresponsible
corporate behavior and instead:
§
end destructive subsidies,
§
monitor and report on corporate behavior,
§
enforce laws and agreements protecting communities and
ecosystems,
§
curb inappropriate influence by corporate lobbyists, and
§
show leadership by activelly promoting corporate responsibility
and accountablity.
These are some of the important questions that need to be raised and answered
at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Overall, one of
the great challenges facing the World Summit is the creation and implementation
of global governance institutions and accountablity mechanisms to ensure
production, consumption, trade and investment contributes to sustainable
development instead of undermining it.
This goal is also the challenge for ToBI. How can the Taskforce use
its current collective voice and position within the UN process to raise
these questions and effectively push for answers and action?
Establishing the critical voice of civil
society at the UN
As many of you know and actively took part, ToBI was created in 1996
to speak to the UN General Assembly's five-year review of progress on
the implementation of Agenda 21. We knew that business and industry
groups attending "Earth Summit II" would use the occasion
to highlight the positive behavior and contributions within the corporate
world -- while downplaying and avoiding discussions of negative and
destructive behavior and abuse. We also knew that the industry groups
would active lobby government delegations and UN officials, promoting
policies of deregulation, privatization, "free" trade, corporate
protectionism, voluntary initiatives and company self-regulation.
In response, the NGOs making up the Taskforce on Business & Industry
produced and submitted to the UN Commission on Sustainable Development
and to the General Assembly Special Session the report Minding Our
Business: The Role of Corporate Accountability in Sustainable Development.
Signed by over 70 nongovernmental organizations and networks from around
the world, the ToBI NGO statement pointed out that while some companies
may indeed choose to be socially responsible, people need their governments
to ensure accountability of companies refusing or simply unable to behave
responsibly.
Since then ToBI members and friends have worked to establish and strengthen
the critical voice of citizens and civil society within the United Nations
system and intergovernmental policymaking processes, at the Commission
on Sustainable Development (CSD), the OECD, the WTO and other fora.
Now as heads of state prepare their position statements and consider
their commitments, it is time once again for the NGO Taskforce on Busienss
and Industry to prepare its own contribution to the process.
Corporate Accountability Campaign for
2002
In the coming weeks we hope to see Taskforce members and friends discuss
objectives, strategy and planned actions aimed at promoting corporate
accountability at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Many
members and affiliates of ToBI are already discussing what is possible
and what kinds of activities and information are needed to best influence
this process. For ToBI to play a useful part in this process we need
to share our ideas and identify ways to combine and build support for
our different efforts. Some of this discussion will be public, some
more confidential.
One way to begin this process is for each organization to:
1. Contribute a short message to the ToBI listserver (tobi-strategy@center1.com)
about what your organization is doing, plans to do, or thinks should
be done your preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development
(if your organization is indeed planning any involvement in this event.)
2. Suggest what message or activity you think the NGO Taskforce
on Business and Industry should adopt for our Campaign on Corporate
Accountability targeting the World Summit (or if you think ToBI
should or should not invest its energy into this event).
One suggestion has been for ToBI members to lobby the UN to organize
a multistakeholder dialogue at the World Summit or in one of
its global preparatory meetings, focusing on the theme of corporate
accountaiblity (or the more likely title: "Globalization: The Role
of Government, Private Sector and Civil Society.") Following the
procedures of earlier such dialogues at the CSD, different major groups
would collectively produce papers on the selected theme, highlighting
their analysis and recommendation for solutions to the problem. This
would provide the opportunity to directly address government
delegations with our message and argument for our recommended actions.
Other NGO events, lobbying and other activities could then be planned
to strengthen that message and argument -- and government support for
our recommendations -- throughout the preparatory process and the Summit.
Another idea we are exploring is to open a ToBI office in India
to help build stronger ties with southern civil society organizations.
One important point to keep in mind is what we can realistically expect
to accomplish by our participation in this World Summit process. There
are opportunities for groups to come together and build alliances and
mutual support for our different campaigns; there are opportunities
to lobby government delegates and to identify countries that share some
of our goals and objectives; and there are opportunities to raise and
highlight issues and proposals that may otherwise be pushed to the side
and ignored.
I look forward to hearing from you and working with you over the coming
weeks and months.
With best regards,
Jeffrey Barber, Northern Coordinator
P.S. Note also the change of the ToBI website, which is now located
at www.isforum.org/tobi . We are in an ongoing process of updating
and improving the site, so also please give us your suggestions on the
site and how it can work better for you.