Investing in women’s health not only benefits employees and surrounding communities, but it can also have a positive social and economic effect on the private sector. In ensuring that workers have safe working conditions and available health services, companies establish healthier staff, better relationships, and in many cases higher Return-on-investment (ROI). This call to companies to invest in women's health highlights Principle 3 of the Women’s Empowerment Principles, which encourages companies to ensure the health, including sexual and reproductive health, of all workers.

Companies and organizations are making tremendous strides in creating policies that support inclusive and diverse environments; however data shows that women, as well as other minority groups such as ethnic and/or racial minorities, persons with disabilities etc. continue to be underrepresented and face barriers to achieving their full potential. While there are several factors that contribute to this global reality, one factor that is often overlooked is the need to address unconscious biases and implicit associations that can form an unintended and often an invisible barrier, restricting a company’s gender equality policies and programmes from reaching their intended mark. To achieve truly inclusive business environments the Women's Empowerment Principles call on companies to take steps to uncover, raise awareness about, address and reduce unconscious biases throughout their organization, including at the management and leadership levels.

With the development of the Post-2015 agenda and discussion of the scope of potential sustainable development goals, the United Nations Global Compact has been asked to bring private sector perspectives and action to the global development agenda. As one of the priority areas designated by the UN Global Compact’s LEAD companies, Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality aims ensure that all sustainable development goals be inclusive and gender-sensitive to facilitate maximum impact and avoid increasing inequalities. This issue paper explores the responsible business community’s willingness to contribute to the creation of women’s empowerment goals as well as to inform government and policy makers in future implementation of efforts involving the private sector. In addition, gender is incorporated into all ten (10) Issue Briefs exploring a different priority issue area as identified through extensive consultations with LEAD companies and other stakeholders.

A collection of interviews with 30 leaders reflecting on sustainable business. The book presents a number of stories about the importance of corporate sustainability and what is next for businesses that seek to be active, engaged and responsible. The interviews offer key takeaways in relation to leadership, governance, transparency, metrics, sharing and inspiration.

Business In Society (BIS) reports on how the private sector can have an influential effect on our lives through sustainable and responsible business. This programme features the Women's Empowerment Principles and interviews with Ms. Anne-Marie Slaughter, President of The New America Foundation, Ms. Barbara Krumsiek, CEO of Calvert Investments, and Ursula Wynhoven, Chief, Governance and Social Sustainability and General Counsel of the United Nations Global Compact by John Paluszek of BIS. In these interviews, a spotlight is put on the Women's Empowerment Principles and the tipping point for women’s empowerment in business, government, civil society and other institutions

As global demand for food, fuel, forest, minerals and other products rises, more businesses are investing – and will continue to invest – in land. While potentially profitable and socially beneficial, these investments may involve substantial financial, legal, operational and reputational risks (including land tenure risk, the risk associated with acquiring rights to land). This webinar explored responsible business practices in regard to lands rights involving non-indigenous communities.

Learn about how companies in the Global Compact LEAD are taking action to advance corporate sustainability around the world.

Migrant workers are often susceptible to unfair recruitment and hiring practices, leaving them highly vulnerable to exploitation. For many, the debt burden they carry from excessive recruitment fees and migration costs exacerbates this vulnerability and can lead to debt bondage and forced labour. This note calls on business to take action to address such exploitative practices and their associated risk to labour abuse. References to relevant international standards and links to multi-stakeholder initiatives and additional resources are included to provide further guidance.

Provides an overview of progress two years after the launch of the Guide for Responsible Corporate Engagement in Climate Policy at COP19. Over 100 companies from more than 20 countries have made a notable commitment to implement actions on responsible policy engagement in their company.

ILO experts on skills and employability explore the contribution of enterprises to building a skilled workforce in their countries of operation. The discussion focuses on common challenges companies face in developing and implementing a skills and employability policy and practical examples of private sector engagement in skills systems.

The COE Template is an easy-to-use web-based template with examples.

Various stakeholder groups are mounting calls for Boards of Directors to take sustainability into account while adhering to their legal duties to shareholders. This puts questions about fiduciary duty front and center. Careful legal analyses of such questions have been prepared over the past year by law firms all over the world. The collection of memoranda below will inform and enrich discussion among Board directors, and the lawyers who counsel them, about how changing circumstances near and far are affecting their ability to meet fiduciary duty requirements. 

 Prof. Robert G. Eccles and Tim Youmans of Harvard Business School have led this collaboration which included the UN Global Compact, the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Sustainable Development and PRI, Their aim was to gather legal perspectives from law firms in a wide range of countries. Each participating law firm used a standard research template developed by Linklaters in the UK to structure their respective legal memo. The legal memos are posted below with the permission of the participating firms. To further grow the research, enquiries from law firms in countries that do not already have a legal memo are welcome. If you do not see your country listed and want to know if one is being prepared, please contact Ingvild Soerensen (soerensen@unglobalcompact.org).