19 June 2020 - Participating in the UN Global Compact’s 20th anniversary online Leaders Summit, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Ghada Waly, highlighted the importance of preventing corruption as societies recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ms. Waly participated in a session on how global business can use the ten UN Global Compact Principles related to human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, to navigate recovery from the pandemic.
“The idea of transparency, accountability, and good governance are going to be very central for the private sector to survive, grow and to thrive”, she said. Building back better also meant making sure that there is no space for corruption, noted Ms. Waly.
With more than 20,000 business and sustainability leaders joining over 26 hours of virtual programming on 15 and 16 June, the anniversary Summit was the largest to date. It brought together CEOs and UN Chiefs to address the private sector’s response to three unprecedented and interconnected global crises – health, inequality and climate change.
Under the theme of “Recover Better, Recover Stronger, Recover Together,” the event provided a platform where leaders from business, civil society, Governments and the UN were challenged to reflect on the importance of collaboration and public-private partnerships, and increase their ambition to achieve the SDGs.
