The world took notice at the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 when companies, the UN and NGOs came together to advocate for collective action to address climate change. However, the movement towards cooperation between the UN, NGOs and the business community was slow to take hold. By 2005, the Financial Times was still calling a collaborative project between Unilever and Oxfam “globalisation’s strange bedfellows”. But despite slow recognition by the media, a fundamental change was occurring. Instead of confrontation, NGOs, the United Nations and businesses were beginning to speak the same language and seeking to work together to tackle global challenges.

Today, over 65% of the Global Compact’s corporate participants are engaged in partnerships with NGOs and the UN. This publication is a response to the exploding demand for guidance.

The Business Guide for Partnering with NGOs and the United Nations provides a comprehensive and accessible market-based assessment of leading non-profit social actors and agencies of the United Nations that have demonstrated competency in partnering with companies in a number of areas such as advocacy, awareness-raising, health and the environment, among others.

It was born out of the belief that, if companies are aware of the success of other businesses in engaging in partnerships, they themselves will be more inclined to seriously consider the prospects of partnering. Thus, the overarching aspiration of this business guide is to increase the number of partnerships and the quality and impact of those partnerships. Through three distinct avenues it is a product that helps both companies and social actors prepare themselves for partnership building:

• Transparency. The publication attempts to create greater transparency in the marketplace by identifying successful partnership examples. The enclosed organisational profiles enable companies to sort and identify partners based on geography, strengths, focus areas, etc., making it significantly easier to find the right partner.
• Access. The guide provides readers with contact information and highlights topics around which profiled organisations are interested in creating partnerships. Thus, it will be easy for companies to make a connection with an appropriate organisation on an issue of relevance to both of them.
• Role models. The guide showcases social actors and partnerships that have been successful, displaying some of the important factors — such as execution capabilities, accountability, and entrepreneurship — that companies are looking for in partners.

The research was undertaken in collaboration with some of the most highly regarded players in the corporate citizenship sector, including Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF), American Chambers of Commerce, International Chambers of Commerce (ICC), World Bank Institute (WBI), World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and CSRWire. The book contains 865 valid partnership ratings from 445 companies, who rated social actors on the basis of their accountability, adaptability, execution and communication.

The Business Guide for Partnering with NGOs and the United Nations is an indispensable resource for all companies and civil society organisations looking for guidance on how to identify suitable partners as well as for researchers and academics studying this new and rapidly evolving area.

Introduction

The Spirit Behind the Business Guide

Executive Summary

Methodology

How to read the profiles

Profiles of global NGOs/UN agencies

Profiles of regional/local NGOs

Board members

Partners and supporters

Acknowledgements

Annex with list of NGOs/UN agencies

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