Businesses must contribute to MDGs

President Kufuor of Ghana (left) and President Kagame of Rwanda shake hands before the event [Business Call to Action]

CAFOD welcomes the launch of flagship projects by the private sector as part of the government’s Business Call to Action to meet the MDGs

CAFOD welcomes a new call to action for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but says significant action will be needed by governments, businesses and other actors if the 2015 target is to be met.

May 6 marked the launch of flagship projects by the private sector as part of the UK government’s Business Call to Action to meet the MDGs.

As powerful lobbyists and investors, transnational companies have a huge influence on the lives of people in the developing world

Anne Lindsay, CAFOD

Companies such as Anglo American, Wal-Mart, Vodafone, Microsoft, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs are supporting this initiative.

An important part of the Business Call to Action is carefully evaluating how these companies use the considerable skills and resources at their disposal to impact on poverty and build capacity of local enterprises.

Actions for transnationals

Looking beyond individual projects, CAFOD believes this is the right time to ask how companies can ensure that their core business operations support and do not undermine poverty reduction.

There are actions that global businesses can take now which could have a significant impact on achieving the MDGs.

These include:

Safeguarding core labour rights in their global supply chains to reduce the risk of discrimination and allow workers to negotiate improvements in wages.
Not pressing for tax holidays or using off-shore structures to avoid tax payments. This could massively increase the income for developing governments can use this income for health services and education.
Publishing information about contracts and payments to governments to reduce the risk of corruption. This will also help citizens to monitor how their country’s resources are being used.

Action for governments

CAFOD believes the UK government should match high-profile voluntary initiatives with changes to UK law to ensure that "laggard" companies do not undermine human rights, environmental protection and poverty reduction goals.

Anne Lindsay, CAFOD’s private sector policy analyst, comments: “As powerful lobbyists and investors, transnational companies have a huge influence on the lives of people in the developing world.

"We will be looking with interest to see the impact of the initiatives. In addition, we would like to highlight steps which all companies can take around core labour rights, tax payments and transparency which would support the MDGs in very practical ways.

"The government should complement voluntary approaches with legislation which would lead to greater and global accountability for all companies.”

Published on 12/05/2008, last updated on 12/05/2008

What is RSS?

Tell a friend Print this page Back to top