Case Studies June 24, 2004 On 24 June 2004, Secretary-General Kofi Annan convened the first Global Compact Leaders Summit at United Nations Headquarters in New York. Nearly 500 leaders attended the Summit – including chief executive officers, government officials, and the heads of various labour groups, civil society organizations and UN agencies – to discuss and debate the Global Compact and the topic of global corporate citizenship, and to produce strategic recommendations and action imperatives related to the future evolution of the initiative. The design of the Summit was unique in that it employed a methodology known as Appreciative Inquiry! The Global Compact asks participants to make two commitments: 1) Embrace, support and enact, within their sphere of influence, a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labour standards, environmental sustainability and anti-corruption; and 2) Engage with other partners in projects that give concrete expression to the Global Compact principles, in addition to advancing the broader development goals of the UN. The overarching aim of the Leaders Summit was to deepen the commitments of participating leaders from business, labour and civil society by pursuing three ambitious objectives: 1 | Making the Global Compact principles part of business strategy and operations everywhere: To identify significant innovations and achievements in support of human rights, decent working conditions, the environment and anti-corruption. 2 | Promoting an inclusive and sustainable globalization process: To realize a shared vision of global markets that benefits all of the world’s people and advances a new understanding of the relationship between business and society in support of development. 3 | Supporting multilateral cooperation to promote good governance at national and global levels: To build common agendas and actions in support of multilateral cooperation through voluntary networks. Below are resources from this Summit: Preliminary Summary Final Report New Initiatives and Projects Participant Workbook Tags in this article Leadership Summit
