Welcome to the fourth edition of the UN-Business Focal Point newsletter! Much has happened since the previous issue and the new year has brought new challenges as well as new opportunities for collaboration...

The links between hip-hop culture and violence in West Africa are about to become much clearer to filmgoers and music fans. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), VH1, Article 19 Films and Djali Rancher Productions are collaborating to produce a new documentary film, “Bling: A Planet Rock,” which will bring to light the issue of the diamond trade in Sierra Leone, West Africa, and portrays the troubling discovery by members of the diamond-obsessed hip-hop community that they may have unintentionally played a role in the country's long civil war...

October 12, 2006 was quite an eventful day for the UNDP Regional Centre in Bangkok, Thailand, and Total S.A. On that morning, representatives for the Regional Centre and Total gathered to sign into force the first Asia-Pacific regional partnership of its kind. UNDP and Total agreed to collaborate in a range of strategic development areas, including access to clean and sustainable energy; promotion of better business environments, leadership training for youth, and strengthening civil society networks...

In October 2006, UNDP’s Growing Sustainable Business Initiative (GSB) in Madagascar joined Mad Imports in a partnership to harness development and at the same time celebrate the impressive design talent in the country...

GSB Moldova believes that sustainable business will come to play a significant role in eradicating poverty by being a dominant engine of economic growth, one of the key objectives of UN’s Millennium Development Goals...

The UNEP Convention on Migratory Species (UNEP/CMS) and the Germany-based Touristik Union International (TUI) have been “walking the walk” since they launched a collaboration at the end of 2005 to conserve and manage species of wild animals that migrate across or outside national boundaries...

In December 2006, Unilever and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) signed a new partnership in the fight against child hunger, called ‘Together for Child Vitality’. The three-year partnership supports the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, specifically the first: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, and the second: Achieve universal primary education...

On 11 November 2006, UNESCO and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, the world’s leading global sport for women, announced a landmark global partnership to further gender equality and promote women’s leadership in all spheres of society, two global development objectives...

UNCTAD has recently released the Chinese version of its publication “Disclosure of the Impact of Corporations on Society: Current Trends and Issues” in partnership with the website Syntao.com, which provides Chinese and English bilingual information to increase the awareness of social responsibility among all stakeholders, and to promote a sustainable development model with bottom lines in both business success and social benefit...

On 22 – 24 November 2006, the Global Compact’s 4^th International Learning Forum Meeting was convened in Accra, Ghana. Marking the first time the Global Compact hosted an international forum in Africa, the meeting brought together nearly 200 representatives from business, civil society and government to learn about the opportunities and challenges related to implementing the Global Compact’s ten principles and undertaking partnerships for development...

On 4 October 2006, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) invited representatives from foundations and the private sector to a one-day Global Partnership Forum. The objective of the forum was to discuss specific ways to jointly address the inter-related global problems of drug abuse, human trafficking, and HIV/AIDS...

In his first speech outside of the United Nations as Secretary-General, Ban proclaimed: “The United Nations and business need each other”...

The Partnering Event took place in Cambridge, UK from 24-26 September 2006 and was an unparalleled convocation of cutting-edge partnership practitioners from across the world...

This multistakeholder meeting was organized by the Global Compact Office together with the New York City Comptroller's Office and the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). The event brought together over 75 participants including institutional investors and companies along with civil society and UN representatives to explore the key challenges faced by companies operating in weak or conflict-prone states...

As a private-sector consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Pascale Bonzom was tasked with helping companies to improve their business processes. After five years at PwC, this French native’s first peek into the workings of the UN Global Compact (GC) would turn into more than just a temporary gig...

When Susanne Meier, Director of CSR Strategy and Policy, Corporate Public Policy and Sustainability at Deutsche Post World Net, was asked what she enjoys most about her position, her first reaction was “Everything, I have a super job!”...

The One World Trust’s 2006 Global Accountability Report is the first initiative to measure and compare the accountability of global organisations in the intergovernmental, non-governmental and corporate sectors. The Report findings show that, although there are significant gaps in accountability and there remains much room for improvement, organisations in the three sectors have made good progress in increasing accountability...

Last October, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) launched its newsletter “Business.2010” as part of its increasing efforts to engage the business community. This proved to be just one event in a particularly vibrant year for business and biodiversity...

Business Roundtable, an association of 160 chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies, launched a new Web site, www.respondtodisaster.org, the first comprehensive clearinghouse of information to help the business community better prepare for disasters...

The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) has released a new set of guidelines for developing and managing partnerships with the private sector. Primarily intended to be a consistent reference document for UNITAR staff to work with business, the UNITAR document is also useful reading for companies who consider engaging in a partnership with UN Agencies and Programmes in general...

The Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (BLIHR), the United Nations Global Compact Office (UNGCO), and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) collaborated to produce “A Guide for Integrating Human Rights into Business Management”. This guide is intended to help meet the need for more human rights tools and guidance, and in doing so, help companies make human rights a successful part of their business...

The World Economic Forum has published a global view of the 2005-2006 business response to HIV/AIDS entitled “Business & HIV/AIDS: A Healthier Partnership?” which provides an overview of business perceptions and responses to HIV/AIDS...

Control Risks Germany has published a briefing paper entitled “Public-Private Partnerships in State-Building and Recovery from Conflict” which focuses on the role of the private sector in partnerships with other political economic and social actors in state-building...

The Business Civil Leadership Center (BCLC), an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has released their first report on global corporate citizenship entitled “Strengthening Public-Private Partnerships for Social and Economic Development”...

Maplecroft, the corporate responsibility specialist, and BASF – a founding participant of the United Nations Global Compact and leading provider of food-fortification solutions, have partnered to produce an interactive map of hunger...

During October and November, 2006 the Financial and Private Sector Development section of the World Bank’s website has conducted a discussion on “Public-Private Partnership Units: Are they needed and what should they do?” The discussion involved numerous posts from interested practitioners and has been quite interesting due to a number of different issues that have been brought up...

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has recently issued both an evaluation of its partnerships and alliances as well as a management response to these recommendations...

As part of their commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative, The Conference Board, Harvard University CSR Initiative and the International Business Leaders Forum have come together to produce a series of Leadership Dialogues and subsequent reports to gather good practice, increase understanding and promote further action on the business contribution to international development...

A list of upcoming events relevant to UN private sector focal points...

The names and contact information for new colleagues...