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Back | Programme Area: Markets, Business and Regulation (2000 - 2009) | Event: Corporate Social Responsibility and Development: Towards a New Agenda?


Corporate Social Responsibility and Development: Towards a New Agenda?


17th November 2003


Provisional Agenda

Opening: Thandika Mkandawire – Director, UNRISD


SESSION 1: CSR AND DEVELOPMENT: RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES

This session will assess the implications of CSR in relation to social and sustainable development based on the findings from UNRISD and other research institutions.

Panel 1: What Difference Does CSR Make to Development?

>> How significant are CSR initiatives in terms of their contribution to social and sustainable development?
>> What are the tensions and contradictions between CSR and development?
>> What developmental issues are being ignored in the current CSR agenda?

Speakers:
  • David Barkin – Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico
  • David Fig – University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
  • Mary Kaldor – London School of Economics and Political Science, UK*
  • Monina Wong – Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee, Hong Kong

Discussion 1: What Difference Does CSR Make to Development?

Lunch

SESSION 2: NEW RELATIONS WITH TNCS

This session will examine the potential and limits of new forms of regulating TNCs and promoting CSR: multistakeholder initiatives (MSIs) and public-private partnerships (PPPs). Particular attention will be given to UN-business relations associated with CSR, including the Global Compact and international MSIs involving codes of conduct, independent monitoring, certification and reporting.

Panel 2: Multistakeholder Initiatives

>> Are multistakeholder initiatives an effective means of deepening and scaling-up CSR?
>> Are they overcoming the problems and limitations that characterize corporate self-regulation?
>> Can they move from the current phase of pilot testing and experimentation to become a new system of regulation for corporate activity?

Speakers:
  • Deborah Doane – New Economics Foundation, UK
  • Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud – WWF-International, Switzerland
  • Dara O’Rourke – University of California-Berkeley, USA
  • Ineke Zeldenrust – Clean Clothes Campaign – International Secretariat, The Netherlands

Discussion 2: Multistakeholder Initiatives

Break

Panel 3: UN-Business Partnerships

>> In terms of social and sustainable development, what has been the added value of UN business partnerships?
>> What are the tensions and contradictions associated with UN-business partnerships?
>> How have current partnership arrangements responded to criticisms and concerns about their developmental and governance implications?

Speakers:
  • Georg Kell – UN Global Compact*
  • Amalia Waxman – WHO
  • Ann Zammit – UNRISD

Discussion 3: UN-Business Partnerships



* Pending confirmation
UNRISD reserves the right to alter the agenda if necessary