Activists Help End Flawed UN/Corporate Partnership
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SAN FRANCISCO and NEW YORK -- CorpWatch has learned that after a year long campaign by environmentalists, human rights groups, labor unions and other non-governmental organizations a leading UN agency abandoned its perilous partnership with a group of transnational corporations whose tarnished human rights, environmental and development records threatened to rub off on the world body.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has canceled plans to
create a Global Sustainable Development Facility (GSDF) in partnership with
about 15 corporations. The GSDF was to include Dow Chemical, mining giant
Rio Tinto, energy conglomerate ABB and biotechnology leader Novartis.
Through the partnership, known as the Global Sustainable Development
Facility, UNDP had planned to sell global corporations its international
network of offices, high level governmental contacts and its reputation at
a bargain price.
"The GSDF was fatally flawed and deserved to die," said Joshua Karliner,
Executive Director of CorpWatch and author of "Perilous Partnership," a report
about the program. "We welcome the news and hope that it foreshadows a more
principled approach to the relationship between the UN and corporations."
UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown informed members of an NGO advisory
panel of his decision to abandon the initiative in late May. The GSDF had
come under fire from many NGOs, including TRAC and some of the members of
the advisory panel. Last year, over 100 organizations signed a letter to
the previous head of UNDP, Gus Speth, calling for GSDF to be abandoned.
The criticisms of the GSDF included associating with corporate bad actors,
an over-emphasis on the free market ideology of globalization and
development, the danger of "bluewash" by corporations hoping for public
relations benefits from wrapping themselves in the flag of the United
Nations, and failure to abide by the agency's own guidelines in associating
with private companies.
The GSDF was just one of many partnerships with the private sector
currently being pursued by the United Nations and many of its agencies.
"Even with the end of the GSDF, we will remain vigilant in tracking other
UN-corporate partnerhip programs," said CorpWatch's UN Project Coordinator Kenny Bruno. "We will also continue to advocate for the UN to monitor corporate behavior rather than partner with these transnational giants."
NOTE: For more information about the GSDF and UN-corporate partnerships
in general, please visit http://www.corpwatch.org/un
- 101 Alliance for a Corporate-Free UN