I am representing the Global Agenda Council on Corruption. If you look back after the
Second World War, the urgency of international challenges forced new institutions: the World
Bank, the IMF, the UN, etc. Towards the end of the twentieth century, the reality of supranational
challenges led to global initiatives: the G8, the EU, the World Economic Forum. All
of these have in common their quest for good governance solutions. However, today the credibility
of these initiatives are low, because they have failed to demand credibility from good
governance being preached by their participants at home. This is a real challenge, and we
have failed to address that, because there is no entry standard into this. For this reason,
we feel that the credibility of these global initiatives need serious attention. We believe
that the World Economic Forum can set a best practice example, and that example is very
simple. All participants in the World Economic Forum
– companies, public entities, NGO – should implement a credible, verifiable anti-corruption
compliance system in their organisations and report on progress. We need to be the collection
of those that practise good governance at home before you can seek governance on a global
level. That is not only in this Forum, but true for all other initiatives. We think the
World Economic Forum is a good starting point.
So, how do we go about it? Who are the key players to make this work? Clearly, we need
the buy-in of the World Economic Forum. That is very important. We believe that the World
Economic Forum is dedicated to this issue, and we have had a very strong indication that
they support it. Clearly, we need more of that. We need key governments. We have five
champions from governments. If we have got five champions from multinational enterprises,
from major state-owned enterprises, as well as large NGOs. In other words, a number of
champions that say, ‘We will put it out that we commit to do this, and we encourage
you to do the same.’ By and large, we are already there. We have these, so we need to
tie them up, we need to get them to move, and then we need to take it to scale. Why
is this proposal unique? Firstly, because it sets the same standard for everybody: for
NGOs, for governments, for multinational enterprises. All of you have to practise good governance.
Of course, there are different tools available to each of these.
For governments, we have got the OECD Convention, we have got the United Nations Convention.
For companies, we have got PACI, we have got Global Compact, we have got Standards. For
NGOs, we’ve got the IANGO Charter. So, there is something already that they can use. Also,
it is likely to succeed, because of the absolute urgency of the matter, and because if the
World Economic Forum starts to take a leading role, we have the influential people around
the world already part of this initiative.
Where do we need help to make this work? We need help, firstly, from the people in this
room, because you there – you need to go out and say, ‘Yes, we think this is a good
idea.’ It’s simple, but it can fundamentally bring a change about. That will increase the
support from the World Economic Forum community. We need outreach to all of the key players
that I mentioned, and we need the active involvement of the Global Agenda Council on Corruption
and PACI. We have those. So, I would want to put it a little bit more concretely: if
you think this is a bad idea, please tell us. Say no. This idea – don’t tell us
it can’t work, but if you think it’s a bad idea, tell us that. Give us a better alternative
to improve the credibility of global initiatives. If you come up with that, we will definitely
take it. If you think it’s a good idea, please make sure that you go and you tell
others about it. Thank you very much.