Moody-Stuart appointed to key UN advisory body

New York, 9 January 2002 - BASD chairman Sir Mark Moody-Stuart was yesterday named by Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General, as one of only eleven world business leaders to join a special UN advisory panel.

Moody-Stuart will join other private and public sector leaders on the Global Compact Advisory Council - a body created to assist the UN Secretary-General in his effort to find cooperative solutions to the challenges of globalization.

The Global Compact was conceived by Annan in July 2000 as a way to bring the private and public sectors together to realise some of the UN's broad aims in the areas of environment, labour and human rights.

It found its first private sector champion in the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) - the world's largest business organization.

Remarking yesterday on the creation of the Global Compact Advisory Council, Annan said: "What began as a speech three years ago has grown into a worldwide movement engaging the private sector, labour, civil society and the United Nations.

"Good progress has been made in many areas. More and more companies are responding to the (Compact's) call, changing strategies and actions to inform entrepreneurship with society's needs. Projects and initiatives are being launched in such wide-ranging areas as investment in least developed countries, diversity in the workplace, and environmental protection. A collective effort is under way to establish a culture and practice of pragmatic solution-finding through cooperation."

Moody-Stuart's appointment comes only months after the formation of Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD) - a joint initiative of ICC and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) to prepare business involvement in the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.

To date, the Global Compact, an entirely voluntary initiative, has attracted several hundred companies from countries such as the Russian Federation, China, Brazil, India, Germany, Norway, Indonesia, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The 17 members of Advisory Council - all acting in their individual, rather than institutional capacities - have been asked by the Secretary-General to serve rotating terms of two and three years. The Advisory Council will convene for formal meetings twice per year.