Malcolm McIntosh

Human communities have progressed and evolved through the development of language, through innovation and enterprise, and through caring and sharing. Business has played a significant part in this, but we are now seeing that radical evolution of the current business model is needed if business is to be part of the solution to the challenges presented by climate change, an inequitable global economic system, bad governance, corruption, abuse of human rights and violence so that business can help create a peaceful and socially just global community. What is required now is the creation of sustainable enterprise – a concept increasingly linked to the debate on human security.

The UN Global Compact's ten principles cover some of the most fundamental human security issues: human rights, labour standards, environmental protection and corruption.  Their provenance lies in internationally agreed treaties, standards and declarations and their universal applicability and usefulness is undisputed even if there is some considerable discussion on prioritisation, implementation and efficacy. The ongoing iterative process and growing global conversation about the ten principles is testament to the reality that at an international and global level the world is beginning to see itself as one place and space with a shared survival instinct and a desire to learn the lessons of, amongst a number of issues, past world wars and international trade crises. The greatest conflicts are now often created at interstate, international and global levels by those with a fundamentalist perspective who do not share the idea of the ongoing human rights process which is focused on human rather than state security.

In the globalization debate and in the pages of corporate social responsibility literature, the human security agenda is slowly coming to the fore as global talks take over from international negotiations. Human security has three primary components: the sanctity of the individual; the relationship of the individual to the community; and the preservation of people and communities in the face of regional, national, international and global interventions. An early reference to this new focus came in the 1994 UN Development Report which said: “For most people today a feeling of insecurity arises more from worries about daily life than the dread of a cataclysmic world event. Job security, income security, health security, environmental security, and security from crime – these are emerging concerns of human security all over the world.”

In 2003 the UN Commission on Human Security, chaired by Sadako Ogata and Amartya Sen, reported that the world needed “a new security framework that centers directly on people”. Human security, they argued, “focuses on shielding people from critical and pervasive threats and empowering them to take charge of their lives”. The necessity for a paradigm shift is because there is “a consensus that the meaning of security is eroding; existing institutions and policies (are) unable to cope” with the new global situation. “The state has the primary responsibility for security, but the security challenge is complex and various new actors attempt to play a role”. The Commission sought to develop a global framework focussed on “survival, dignity and livelihood; freedom from fear; and freedom from want”. Of particular concern were the most vulnerable individuals who need protection from violent conflict, those people who are on the move and those people who are economically insecure due to the global economic system having failed to enrich them or whose lives have been destabilised by forces far beyond their control. 

Traditional approaches to security issues tend to focus on military security and are over-concerned with territorial issues. Economic globalization and open global social networks mean that the professional worlds of humanitarianism, development, human rights, conflict and business must find space to meet and integrate.

The new Centre for Human Security at Coventry University is focusing on what we see as the greatest threats to human security which, we argue, are: climate change, an inequitable global economic system, bad governance, corruption, abuse of human rights and violence. The solutions to these problems will come through understanding planetary ecosystems, through collecting and collating evidence on good practice that produces peaceful and socially just outcomes for people and communities, and on developing systems, policies and strategies for the future that involve the active participation of all stakeholders.

The world of corporate citizenship has been addressing the need for business, and particularly global business, to realize that it must be accountable on its social, environmental and financial performance. The UN Global Compact is a prime example of efforts in these directions and has quickly become one of the world's most significant corporate citizenship initiatives. It is important to make the point that if all businesses, or even all those members of the UN Global Compact, acted in full on all ten principles and pushed that implementation down through their supply chains, the world would be a radically different place. A fully compliant company would be heading rapidly in the direction of becoming a sustainable business – sustainable financially, sustainable in terms of its commitment to and support for people and their communities, and sustainable in having a minimal environmental footprint.

Sustainable enterprise is what we are all about. How could anyone argue against such a principle? It is slowly becoming accepted that the only place where it is necessary to argue the business case for corporate social responsibility (CSR) is in those arenas where the audience does not understand that it is not the intention of anyone in the CSR industry to put business out of business. Indeed profitable business is vital if we are to reach a sustainable state on this planet. But, it is clear that some business practices, including some goods and services, do not fit with the global community's enthusiasm, particularly at an individual and community level, for the preservation of life on Earth.

Innovation, enterprise and trading are at the heart of what it means to be human, as are conversation, community, caring and sharing. Without these attributes the human species would not have progressed this far. Some forms of business and commerce fit this model, and some do not. Our task is to make sure that we build enterprising societies particularly when, as now, the world is faced with the vast challenge of developing systems, policies and strategies to cope with issues such as climate change. Those who do not believe that climate change is a reality do not understand the global scientific consensus, or are hiding their heads in the sand or, worse still, are determined to do the best for themselves at the expense of us all.

Sustainable enterprise has to be one of the most significant ways forward this century. The call is out for all participants in business, government and civil society to speed up the development of models of sustainable enterprise based on what we know now works. The UN Global Compact is a large part of this drive towards the world's next great transformation. There is good practice around the world and we know how to make progress, but now is the time to just do it.


Malcolm McIntosh is Professor and Director of the Applied Research Centre in Human Security (ARCHS) at Coventry University, Editor of the Journal of Corporate Citizenship, former Special Adviser to the UN Global Compact and co-editor with Sandra Waddock and Georg Kell of Learning To Talk: Corporate Citizenship and the Development of the UN Global Compact (2004) and the forthcoming The Next Great Transformation: The Corporate Contribution to A Sustainable Future (2008). A conference "The Next Great Transformation" is being organised by ARCHS, the UN Global Compact, Boston College and the Eden Project and will take place 25 and 26 October at the Eden Project in England. A new part-time MSc and full-time MBA in Sustainable Enterprise starts in September 2007 at Coventry University and an MSc in European Human Security starts in September 2008. For more information please go to www.coventry.ac.uk/archs.