With the development of a more evolved partnership agenda within the United Nations including, for example, a more profound focus on “win-win” partnerships which takes into account the needs of the UN while, at the same time, utilizes the core-business expertise of the private sector, it is always important to remember that private sector companies are, in fact, commercial entities relying on profitability to be sustainable. It should therefore come as no surprise that, while partnerships with the business community can contribute significantly to UN goals, any relationship between the UN and business must be reciprocal in order to be truly sustainable. With this in mind, if relationships between the UN and the private sector are to move forward, it will become increasingly necessary for UN entities to differentiate between the private sector’s CSR activities and their normal commercial ‘bottom-line’ activities and to understand that these can happily co-exist. In order to get a better idea of how such a multi-faceted working relationship between the UN and the private sector can function, I spoke with Mr. Richard Golding, Global Relations Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), one of the world’s largest professional services firms.

Richard joined PwC in London over 20 years ago and in 1994 moved to his current office in Geneva where he now serves as one of the firm’s Global Relationship Partners, a role which includes managing and co-ordinating all PwC’s business activities around the world with 2 major global clients. These clients are the UN system and also The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Richard started his professional life as a UK Chartered Accountant in Local Government but soon after moved into the private sector in various finance and operational roles within the Retail and Financial Services sectors. In 1987, he then joined Price Waterhouse Management Consulting Division in London where, over the years, he has specialized in Performance Improvement, Governance and Risk Management consulting services to both multinational private and public sector clients and, latterly, the UN System.

Richard has found over recent years that working with the UN System is not only a fascinating challenge due to the significant ongoing reform needs but also a kind of privilege given the UN’s unique profile on major global issues.

While PwC was working extensively with the UN during the mid-1990s, the relationship between PwC and the UN then went through a relatively fallow period but has really experienced significantly increased again over the last 3-4 years. The origins of this increased activity, Richard stressed, goes back to the second term of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan which saw even greater intensity and commitment to reform within the UN system and which subsequently led to an increase in external consulting needs at the UN. Richard was quick to point out that while PwC does also ‘partner’ with the UN on occasions (see below), PwC, like others in the consulting industry, continues to look for commercial opportunities work for the UN system. He explains, “current needs within the UN touch many areas of core competence within our advisory and consulting business and the UN continues to have a lot of reform and improvement needs. We are focused on providing quality services to meet these needs while, at the same time, building deeper understanding amongst our people about the very special, almost unique challenges of working within ‘a UN environment’ so as to improve the potential for outcomes with real positive impact for the various agencies’ beneficiaries and all member states.”

But Richard also points out that PwC also recognizes that there are 2 key dimensions, or pillars, to its commercial work with the UN System. The first pillar is work relating to the internal reforms and improvements of various UN agency headquarters which includes, among other things, helping to improve and solve issues of governance, human resources, process improvements, information systems, accounting, auditing, oversight, etc. The second pillar is equally important and concerns activities on projects ‘in the field’ where Richard and PwC staff work together with different agencies to, for example, help them to monitor and evaluate results of development and humanitarian projects in developing countries. PwC has offices in over 140 countries and Richard recognizes the not only the quality of local PwC people in developing countries, but also the importance of being seen to be maximising utilization of those resources wherever possible. Major UN donor and recipient countries need to see that consulting revenues are being channelled into such countries and not simply to the major commercial centres of the world. Within PwC, there is an established ‘International Development Assistance’ (IDA) network which aims to co-ordinate and promote such work funded by major clients like the UN and other multilateral institutions across the PwC network. “By boosting the work for our local businesses in these countries, we like to feel that we are also making our own modest contribution to overall economic development in these countries”.

This is not to say that PwC does not engage in notable amounts of partnership or CSR-type activities, also within the UN system. First, PwC has been a member of the UN Global Compact for many years and continues to report on its progress. Second, PwC demonstrated a huge commitment to helping affected communities following the 2004 Asian tsunami by providing significant in-kind professional assistance to the relief efforts. “We responded to this exceptional and tragic disaster by donating something more valuable than pure cash – our professional time – in the form of 8,000 person/hours. This time was divided up over 12-18 months, among different UN agencies, and was focused on tracking funds and providing project risk management and other services,” he explained. ”However, it’s important for both the UN and others to keep in perspective the fact that this pro-bono support was an ‘exceptional act for an exceptional event’. PwC’s normal commercial business activities with the UN continue as before”.

In addition, Richard also comments that, “with the larger commercial projects that we have completed for the UN, the pleasant surprise for me has been that the PwC employees working on them have declared a special sense of motivation for such work because of the distinctiveness and unique characteristics and challenges of the UN. They enjoy it.”

In this context, and following on from PwC’s engagement in relief efforts related for the tsunami, PwC has gradually fostered a new relationship with one particular agency - UNHCR. The relationship really started back in 2005 when PwC and other senior management representatives from 4 other major multinationals (Microsoft, Merck, Manpower and Nike) jointly formed the UNHCR Council of Business Leaders who are committed to advising the High Commissioner and his management team and also to finding ways to developing multi-faceted partnerships with UNHCR to provide meaningful support to forcibly displaced people and to contribute towards finding durable solutions for them. For example, PwC has committed to providing some of its project managers with the telecoms industry expertise to work with teams from other business partners and UNHCR as part of what is called the Community Technology Access (CTA) program which aims to bring wireless network access to long-term remote refugee camps. Participation in such projects enable PwC to provide much needed professional management skills whilst its own project managers gain unique experience in applying their skills in a very, very different and challenging context – which in turn enhances and expands their own personal abilities. Furthermore, in June 2008, PwC teamed up with UNHCR to launch “the Power of 10” project which aimed to raise money from among the 150,000 PwC employees around the world within a period of 10 days. Over $4m was raised and this will fund a project over the next few years to build schools, train teachers, and provide educational supplies for up to 30,000 refugee children in Eastern Chad. This is UNHCR’s largest ever single corporate contribution.

Along the same lines, a few years ago, PwC launched its Ulysses project in 2001. This is an initiative which sends new, young PwC partners into developing countries to apply their business expertise to complex social and economic challenges on a pro-bono basis, for up to eight weeks. While Ulysses is a ‘home-grown’ initiative within PwC, the context of its work certainly leads to overlap with various UN agencies and also some large NGO’s and a handful of these community development projects have included agencies like UNDP and UNHCR. Through these engagements, PwC staff member meet people with special needs in challenging circumstances, encounter new challenges, help to solve problems and therefore, hopefully, become even better consultants for the future.

When asked how PwC reconciles its CSR work with its commercial activities within the UN system, Richard explains that, “The relationship between PwC and the UN system is primarily a business relationship and we are very open about this. We are simply being straightforward and honest and I like to think we are respected for that. We want to be regarded as a key business ‘supplier’ of quality services for a fair price as well as being a potential contributor or partner for certain focused activities where there is a mutual benefit. We are not simply a ‘big company’ who is a potential source of cash. This latter image on its own is simply not sustainable for either party.

When asked about his extensive experience working together with the UN, Richard emphasised that you should always try to maintain a special sense of privilege and respect when engaging with the UN because of its unique global inclusivity, multi-cultural environment and special missions. There are of course frustrations too, just as with any other client, and often-cited bureaucratic, legal and procedural challenges brought about by their necessary but sometimes frustrating procurement processes is a case in point. The UN could help itself considerably as well as get much better value, if it did more to harmonize procurement and contracting processes because, governance-wise, most of the various agencies have very similar procurement models.”

He concludes that, whilst the special relationship with UNHCR will continue for the foreseeable future, he is more cautious about the practicality of further similar relationships especially with the constraints of the current severe economic downturn. We do not have the capacity to take on many more partners in a similar relationship as with UNHCR, especially with the current economic crisis. However, a good investment is a good investment – and, despite the economic crisis, there will always be opportunities.”

For more information on PwC’s CSR activities, please click here or contact Richard Golding, Global Relations Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers.