Speech
24 September 2008
"The private sector and development"
Speech by Douglas Alexander at Business Call to Action event, United
Nations, New York
As part of the week of action on the Millennium Development Goals at the UN Headquarters in New York, on Wednesday 24 September Douglas Alexander spoke alongside Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Kemal Dervis, Head of the United Nations Development Programme, about the Business Call to Action. The Business Call to Action aims to involve private sector companies in spreading growth and prosperity throughout the developing world.
Read the full speech below.
Kemal Dervis, thank you for that kind introduction. I am conscious of the urgency
of people's diaries, so I will keep my remarks very brief.
Firstly, can I say it's a great privilege to speak alongside President Paul
Kagame who has shown by his inspired leadership of his country the truth of the
words spoken by Bob Geldof, our tireless campaigner, not just for justice, but
for common sense in Africa. And all I really want to do, in the brief time
available to me today, is to encourage all of the corporate leaders and business
leaders here in this room and all of those with whom you will be speaking, to
take practical action inspired by the words that you have heard today.
Last year, last July, our Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, came here and spoke of a
development emergency. That was before the credit crunch, before the full scale
of the resource crunch and the fuel crunch had fully hit home and if Bob's words
should continue to inspire us, all of us should recognise the extent to which
there is an even greater urgency now than there was 13 or 14 months ago. But
even then, 21 multinational companies pledged to put their talents into creating
business opportunities and profits within developing countries by signing up to
a Call to Action made by our Prime Minister and endorsed by the
Secretary-General from whom we heard earlier.
The key point I want to emphasise about the Business Call to Action is it is not
simply an exercise in corporate philanthropy, important though philanthropy is,
it is a recognition of the extent to which the core business processes of your
enterprises, your companies and your organisations can be put in the service of
generating jobs, creating innovation and providing the kind of global benefits
that we need to see if we are going to see a successful conclusion to the
Millennium Development Goals.
Since those 21 companies signed up last year, we had a further important meeting
in May of this year in London. The number of companies now signing up to the
Business Call to Action exceeds 60. There will be more announced here today and
I am delighted that, as was anticipated by Kemal's remarks, we have decided to
take forward the partnership which has been the basis of the Business Call to
Action and so I can announce today that the Business Call to Action partnership,
along with the UNDP, along with the UN Global Compact, the Clinton Global
Initiative and the International Business Leaders' Forum, will now continue its
work looking ahead to 2015.
We will track the commitments made of the companies
who sign up, we will be seeking to share and to learn lessons on the basis of
those core business endeavours and at the next annual meeting of both the CGI
and of the World Economic Forum in Davos, there will be a further opportunity
for us to highlight the commitments and lessons learned.
So my plea is a straightforward one - if you have already committed to the
Business Call to Action, I offer you my heartfelt thanks; if you are considering
it, I would urge you to translate the sentiments in this room into the practical
actions for your companies. And please also go forth and communicate the word
that Bob said - Africa is open for business, but that it is hard to overstate
the potential contribution that the private sector and private enterprise can
make to the shared endeavour which has brought us together here in New York this
week.
So, thank you very much. I hope that I have kept myself to the time available to
me, but the key message is this - make sure that we translate words into action,
sign up to the Business Call to Action and, working together, I think the
contribution that we can make will be significant, indeed historic.
Thank you very much.
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