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