UN Private Sector Focal Points Meeting to Strengthen Local Partnership Synergies

Geneva - FAO participated to the United Nations System Private Sector Focal Points Meeting 2013, “Strengthening Partnership Synergies for Local Impact”, held from 24 to 25 April at the ILO Headquarters, Geneva, organized together with ILO, OCHA, UNDP, UNGC, UNICEF and UNWOMEN.

The meeting brought together experts from a large number of UN agencies and the World Bank as well as business representatives of Multinational Companies and of the Global Compact local network to discuss partnering with extractive industries for local growth, business-led skills development programs, engaging the private sector in preparedness and resilience-building and country-level approaches to implementing global initiatives.

The Meeting convened approximately 300 participants from UN entities, private sector companies, civil society organizations, Global Compact Local Networks and other partnership specialists.

FAO’s aim at the meeting was to: represent the organization and its work, and present the FAO’s voluntary standards with regards to How Corporate Responsibility Can Advance Sustainability.

Background

The annual Private Sector Focal Points meeting aims to enhance communication, strengthen learning, advance coordination and improve collaboration among UN staff working with the private sector. For the first time, a day of joint programming was held with the Global Compact Annual Local Network Forum (ALNF) to spark dialogue on ways to further engage the private sector in support of UN goals at the country level. Discussions focused on “Strengthening Partnership Synergies for Local Impact”, recognizing the important role the Global Compact Local Networks can play in brokering partnerships between UN entities and business in local contexts. A special focus of the meeting centered on the post‐2015 development agenda and how to better enhance collaboration between the UN system, Global Compact Local Networks and the private sector.

During the two-day event, a number of relevant topics were presented, including how to engage in partnerships with the extractive industries, innovative partnerships for the Post-2015 Development Agenda, enhancing collaboration between the UN, Global Compact Local Networks and the private sector, and national approaches to implementing global initiatives. 

Main activities

During the two-day event, discussions focused on Strengthening Synergies for Local Impact, highlighting the importance of partnering with businesses at the local level to improve ownership of processes and ground partnership activities in the local context.

In addition, FAO was represented in a number of sessions of interest to organization’s Private Sector

A FAO representative was a speaker at the session regarding “How Corporate Responsibility Can Advance Sustainability”. FAO presented the organization’s work in the development and implementation of Voluntary Standards, specifically in the context of aligning FAO’s work with the private sector’s CSR issues. The representative stressed the need for multi-sectoral dialogue to promote conducive business environments and regulations and gave an example of the Principles For Responsible Agricultural Investment (PRAI), which used an index borrowed from the Dow Jones Standard to create best practices and customized principles.