Director-General/Executive Director
Distinguished panellists,
Esteemed guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am very pleased to be here with you today at this Business Leader’s Summit, and I want to thank the UN Global Compact for bringing together business leaders for the Sustainable Development Goals.
As the global community gathers at the SDG Summit, it is evident that the vision of Agenda 2030 is in real peril.
We need game-changing action.
And as changemakers, standard setters and role models, business leaders have the power and the reach to turbo-charge efforts to achieve the SDGs.
The Global Sustainable Development Report 2023, which came out last week, issued an urgent call for accelerating SDG progress through transformation.
Among the recommendations of the report was to incorporate the Goals in codes of conduct and business strategies, encouraging companies to ensure that their activities are in line with our global aspirations.
As we pursue the SDGs during challenging times, your actions as companies have consequences, and your choices matter.
Today we are addressing one of the most important choices that businesses can make: the choice to stand up for integrity and against corruption.
Corruption hampers sustainable development and the SDGs in every respect, and it intersects with every one of the Goals.
It diverts resources for illicit gain, undermines human rights and the rule of law, and enables crime and exploitation.
Corruption is also bad for business in the long run, incurring costs through unfair competition, distorted markets, and a loss of trust in institutions.
An environment of broken trust is one where business falters and sustainable development remains out of reach.
Business integrity is a powerful force to preserve and restore trust.
It prevents corruption from infiltrating entire sectors and creeping into institutional culture.
It stops the stifling effect of corruption on competition and reduces legal, financial, and reputational risk for companies.
And it empowers businesses to make a positive impact towards the SDGs, including in every one of the main areas of action identified in the Global Compact’s “Forward Faster” initiative.
As businesses, you have both an ethical and a practical interest in fostering a culture of integrity, transparency, and accountability in your industries.
Leaders like you can set the example by adopting business integrity standards that go beyond legal and regulatory requirements set by government authorities.
Now is the time to take collective action to promote business integrity and put prevention into practice across the private sector and throughout supply chains.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention against Corruption, the UNCAC, and the tenth Conference of the States Parties to the Convention will be held this December in Atlanta, Georgia.
I am very pleased to see that the Chair-designate of the Conference, Mr. Richard Nephew, is on your panel today.
In the margins of the Conference in Atlanta, UNODC and the UN Global Compact will co-host a Private Sector Forum, presenting an opportunity for business leaders like you to engage with the public sector and civil society and develop a business integrity agenda for the years to come.
At the forum you can also take forward the “Call to Action” that you will be developing during this Leader’s Summit, and that will be presented at the Conference.
This is your chance to be a voice for integrity and the SDGs, and to partner with governments in promoting compliance and preventing and penalizing misconduct in the private sector.
I highly encourage all of you to engage with the Forum and the Conference in Atlanta.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime is the guardian of the UNCAC, and of the Tenth principle of the Global Compact on anti-corruption.
UNODC is promoting business integrity in different countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, by supporting public-private dialogue, training government and business professionals on anti-corruption in the private sector, and reaching tens of thousands of students with anti-corruption education modules.
We have also partnered with the Global Compact to develop an e-learning tool for the private sector, to help businesses better understand the UNCAC and the Global Compact’s Tenth Principle.
We will continue to work with you, for clean economies and prosperous societies.
Ladies and gentlemen,
By rejecting corrupt practices, you take us all one step closer to eliminating them, to the benefit of your communities, your shareholders, and your brand, contributing to sustainability and a better bottom line.
You take us all one step closer to the SDGs.
Thank you, and I wish you a successful event.
