Sri Lankan business leaders attend largest-ever Global Compact Network Forum

A five member team from the Global Compact Network Ceylon attended the nineth Annual Local Networks Forum (ALNF) during the Global Compact Week in Copenhagen, Denmark recently.

The Global Compact today has practitioners and experts from nearly 100 nations engaged with over 6,800 0f the World’s leading Business is the world’s largest corporate responsibility initiative in an effort to improve collaboration and strengthen business commitments to sustainability. By far the largest ALNF held by the Global Compact to date, it was attended by around 400 participants from 92 Global Compact local networks. This event provided business and Local Network representatives the opportunity to share learning and exchange experiences.

At this session the GC Network Ceylon presented their successful Sustainability Knowledge Hub initiative, which was positively received by the participants and key global figures of corporate sustainability. The Sustainability Knowledge Hub launched earlier this year to equip the Sri Lankan corporate sector with the necessary knowledge and skills required to practice corporate sustainability.

The delegation from Sri Lanka representing the Global Compact’s local network consisted of Ravi Fernando (Focal Point), Rathika De Silva (Holcim), Charmila De Silva (Hayleys), Rasika Withanage (Virtusa) and Deepamala Abeysekera (Aspirations Education). Amongst world’s leading figures in the area of sustainable business the delegation met was Sir Mark Moody-Stuart. Sir Mark is Chairman of the Global Compact Foundation. He is a Director of HSBC Holdings PLC, Accenture Ltd, and Saudi Aramco. He was Chairman of Anglo American plc, a global mining company from 2002 to2009. He was Chairman of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies from 1998 to 2001

The week also featured the first-ever Annual Meeting of the United Nations Global Compact which aimed to help sustainability practitioners develop a better sense of the linkages between the wide range of sustainability issues and the ways in which they can advance better performance in their own organisations.

This event also featured a discussion with the 40 Global Compact LEAD companies on empowering Local Networks through subsidiary engagement.

The ALNF had a mix of plenary and break-out sessions addressing the issue of network and business sustainability and other areas of mutual benefit. Several topics related to the ten principles were also presented by champion networks.

A new addition to the ALNF programme, the Local Network Interface were sessions that various Global Compact working groups and issue platforms devoted specifically to Local Networks. During these sessions, the working groups and issue platforms focused their presentations on new resources and updates most relevant to Local Networks. The Local teams are key members of the following Key Work Groups.

=PRME- Principles of Responsible Management Education – which boasts of 300 plus of the World’s leading Business schools which are working towards embedding Sustainable Business in mainstream MBA curriculum. Ravi Fernando represents the INSEAD Social Innovation centre on this team

=Virtusa is involved with the Business and Peace Working group showcasing its IT for youth in the War torn North east programme

=Hayley’s is represented in the CEO Water mandate Work group

The GC Ceylon Network extended its members pledge to continue as a best practice contributor to this global initiative at this event.

The Global Compact Ceylon Network was activated in 2007 and won the award for the Asia Pacific Network of the Year in 2009 for its pioneering work with INSEAD business school to develop case studies of Global Compact signatories in Sri Lanka.