United Nations System
Private Sector Focal Points Meeting 2008

Day 1 | Day 2 | List of Participants | Meeting Report

Thursday, 2 October

9:00 - 9:30					Opening Plenary Session and Introductory Remarks
					Mr. Georg Kell, Executive Director, UN Global Compact Office Ms. Cécile Molinier, Director, UNDP Office in Geneva Mr. Philip O’Brien, Director, Private Fundraising and Partnerships, UNICEF Ms. Shari Klugman, Chief of Operations, UN Office for Partnerships Meeting Facilitator: Ms. Jane Nelson, Senior Fellow and Director, Corporate Responsibility Initiative, Harvard University, and International Business Leaders Forum
9:30 - 10:50					Plenary Session and Discussion: Enhancing UN-Business Relationships
					Innovative partnerships with business have become a common phenomenon across the UN System and a wide range of UN Agencies, Funds and Programmes are leveraging the skills and resources of the private sector towards the goals of the Organization. Although all UN entities are distinct in their mandates and engagement strategies, and while progress varies, there have been a number of notable developments and valuable lessons learned which should be reflected upon. Moderator: Ms. Jane Nelson, Senior Fellow and Director, Corporate Responsibility Initiative, Harvard University, and International Business Leaders Forum Speakers: Mr. Casper Sonesson, Officer in Charge, Private Sector Division, UNDP Mr. Philip O’Brien, Director, Private Fundraising and Partnerships, UNICEF  Mr. Mario Fetz, Director of Private Donor Relations, WFP   Mr. Paul Hengeveld, Director, UN Programmes, Microsoft Corporation Question and Answer session
10:50 - 11:00					The New UN-Business Website Platform
					Ms. Sally Begbie, International President, Global Hand
11:15 - 11:35					Plenary Session: UN-Business Guidelines
					Eight years of implementation experience have accumulated since the UN’s “Guidelines between the United Nations and the Business Community” were developed in 2000. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently decided to launch a process, to be chaired by the Deputy Secretary-General, to revise these guidelines. This plenary session and working group discussions will provide participants with an opportunity to make recommendations and share lessons learned that should be taken forward in the context of the revision process. How can the UN-business guidelines be improved to place a greater emphasis on the facilitation of partnerships? Is there scope to simplify the partnership creation process without jeopardizing the UN’s credibility and brand? Under what circumstances could greater UN collaboration be helpful ( i.e. partner selection processes; use of the UN name and logo; partnership modalities) Moderator: Ms. Jane Nelson, Senior Fellow and Director, Corporate Responsibility Initiative, Harvard University, and International Business Leaders Forum Speakers: Mr. Georg Kell, Executive Director, UN Global Compact Office Ms. Linda Stoddart, Director, Knowledge Management, Office of the Chief Information Technology Officer, Executive Office of the Secretary General
11:35 - 12:30					Working Groups
					A. Better Articulating the Nature of the UN’s Engagement with the Private Sector in the new UN-business guidelines Participants will discuss how we might introduce more useful partnership language into the guidelines (i.e. partners sharing risks and responsibilities vs. procurement approach), and explore how to reflect and include such language into the new UN guidelines. Participants will explore the maturation of the UN – Business partnership landscape by discussing the new types of partnerships and the different roles played by the UN in the context of these new forms of collaboration. Participants will develop recommendthat will input to the revision of the UN-business guidelines process. Lead Discussant Ms. Regina Castillo, Chief, Private Sector Partnerships, UNAIDS B. Risk Management Criteria for Partner Selection - Towards a common UN framework The 2000 UN Business Guidelines set out a broad range of eligibility criteria for partnership. Experience has shown a need to further articulate a minimum set of common benchmarks and standards that would be applied systematically across the UN family in its partner selection. In this session you will be presented with recent developments in research approaches applied by the Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) industry and discuss how the UN can draw from these experiences and apply them to its own partner selection criteria. Participants will consider options for common screening principles and approaches across the UN System. Lead Discussant: Mr. Andy White, Managing Director, Innovest Strategic Value Advisers London C. Speeding up the development and finalization of agreements with companies Participants will explore if there is space for accelerating the timeframe for finalizing partnership agreements and contracts in order to move more quickly from UN-business partnership concepts and opportunities to implementation. What are the primary constraints and opportunities to expediting UN-business partnership agreements, including the finalization of legal and administrative aspects? What are good practice examples among UN System organizations that have contributed to expediting the finalization of partnership/relationship agreements and contracts in order to move to implementation? How does the UN’s experience in forging partnerships for humanitarian aid and relief inform the approaches of agencies undertaking partnerships promoting sustainable development? Lead Discussant: Mr. Olivier-Pierre Delarue, Director, Division of External Relations, UNHCR
12:30 - 13:00					Reporting back to the plenary
					Moderator: Ms. Jane Nelson, Senior Fellow and Director, Corporate Responsibility Initiative, Harvard University, and International Business Leaders Forum Speakers: One person from each working group will provide a brief overview of the key outcomes of the discussion.
14:00 - 15:30					Working Groups Session #1: Sharing and Comparing: Experiences throughout the Partnership Life Cycle
					Participants will choose to participate in one of the following parallel working group sessions: A. “Core-Business/Market-Based” Approach to Partnerships Increasingly aid organizations are engaging into partnerships that yield positive effects for both profitability of private investments as well as for sustainable development and poverty alleviation. The approach, although relatively new and challenging, can have huge potential for development because markets potential for scaling up as well as creating sustained impact. This session will illustrate various UN and business approaches in applying the responsible market development concept into their strategies, policies and programming. Moderator: Mr. Casper Sonesson, Officer in Charge, Private Sector Division, UNDP Speakers: Ms. Barbara Kreissler, Industrial Information Officer , Industrial Policy and Private Sector Development Branch, UNIDO Mr. David Lamotte, Director, Job Creation and Enterprise Department, ILO B. Measuring & Communicating Partnership Success:  Alliance Implementation Beyond the Launch   This session previews various implementation plans and activities within individual alliances, highlighting the work “behind-the-scenes” that is necessary to keep the alliance fresh and the creativity flowing.   Moderator: Ms. Nicole Brown, Chief of Corporate & Foundation Fundraising, UNICEF Contributors: Ms. Christelle Loupforest, Donor and External Relations Officer, OCHA Mr. Zeynep Basarankut, Resource Mobilization Analyst, UNFPA Ms. Julie Milnes, Partnership Manager, UNICEF UK National Committee “The British Airways- Change for Good Programmme” C. Partnership Assessment and Evaluation Tools Partnerships have become increasingly popular tools to advance development objectives. However, there is no guarantee that a partnership will be a success and there is a significant potential to improve the impact and value of these alliances. As a result, numerous partnership resources and tools have been developed over the past few years. In this session, participants will learn about three such tools – developed by AccountAbility, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and the UN Global Compact Office (in collaboration with the UNDP,UNITAR and UNOP) - and how they aim to improve partnership success. The session also aims to map the existence of tools covering different phases of the partnership lifecycle for participants to gain a better understanding of what is already available for partnership practitioners and to identify where further work is needed. Moderator: Mr. Jocelyn Fenard, Section Head, Partnership and Resource Mobilization, UNITAR  Speakers:  Mr. Steven A. Rochlin, Head - North America, AccountAbility  Ms. Bérangère Magarinos, Senior Manager, Investments and Partnerships Program, GAIN  Ms. Cecilie Hultmann, Communications and Partnership Manager, UN Global Compact Office
15:30 - 16:00					Coffee Break
					Mr. Andy White, Managing Director, Innovest London will provide a demonstration of I-Rating - a global database that provides access to Innovest's complete library of proprietary company ratings, sector reports, Weekly Stock Monitors, Screening services and other specialized research materials.
16:00 - 16:30					Partnership Assessment and Evaluation - the LBG Model
					Alison Braybrooks , Associate Director, The Corporate Citizenship Company will provide a brief overview and introduction to the London Benchmarking Group's approach to evaluating and assessing social investments. Numerous companies and industries use the London Benchmarking Group's approach not only in making decisions about where to make social investments, but also in evaluating their programs.
16:30 - 17:30					Plenary Session: Partnering with the private sector as ONE UN at country level
					This session will showcase how agencies at country level are collaborating to outreach to the private sector as ONE UN. The value added and challenges of this approach will be discussed. Presentations will showcase the approaches and management tools available under RC System that can be applied. Specific issues to be explored include: developing a private sector outreach strategy as the “UN Family”, integrating a private sector strategy into UNDAFs and CPAPs, financing, and using the Global Compact as a platform to outreach to business. The discussion will focus on exploring options for replication in other countries and identifying practical recommendations for institutionalizing this approach at the global level. Moderator: Ms. Jane Nelson, Director, Corporate Responsibility Initiative, Harvard University, and International Business Leaders Forum  Speakers: Ms. Elena Panova, Private Sector Officer, UN Ukraine Mr. Jock Mendoza-Wilson, Director of  International and Investor Relations, System Capital Management
17:30 - 18:00					Report-back session from working groups earlier in the day
					Moderator: Ms. Jane Nelson, Director, Corporate Responsibility Initiative, Harvard University, and International Business Leaders Forum
18:00 - 19:30					Cocktail/Networking Reception hosted by UNICEF (conference venue)