What will the the UN’s Pact for the Future mean for strengthening corporate accountability

The UN plays a leading role by creating clarity and setting out the responsibility of business at an intergovernmental level. When the UN published its Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in 2011, clearly articulating companies’ responsibility towards workers, we began to see real corporate action and ultimately legislation being introduced across several jurisdictions.

Ahead of the Pact of the Future negotiations, the Secretary General’s appointed High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism’s (HLAB) recommended to include and obligate the private sector in multilateralism. Describing the private sector as a glaring hole in the global governance system, it stated that multilateral treaties largely ignore these actors even though they have arguably the greatest impact, responsibility and potential to drive solutions.  

How to strengthen the UN Pact for the Future

To move from a few leading companies changing to entire industries transforming, we need a much stronger push towards corporate accountability. We need to work towards a situation where there are clear consequences for companies that fail to prioritise the goals that are set. Without this, the behaviour of business cannot and will not change.

The UN and its Member States must acknowledge the need for corporate accountability in creating a sustainable and just world. The Pact of the Future takes a step and commits to “encourage the private sector’s contribution to addressing global challenges and strengthen their accountability towards the implementation of United Nations frameworks”. Action 59(e) Rev.3, p.28: https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/sotf-pact-for-the-future-rev.3.pdf

Whilst acknowledging the need for strengthened accountability of the private sector across UN agreements is key, the aspiration does not detail how UN Member States intend to take this forward. The UN must start by articulating what companies are responsible for regarding each global framework. In doing so, the UN sets out the global norm to be enforced.

Therefore, WBA puts forward these high level asks to UN Member States:

Recommendation 1
The Pact must recognise the need for private sector accountability in global agreements
WBA supports the commitment to strengthen partnerships to meet existing commitments and tackle new challenges. However, it is crucial that UN Member States fulfil their pledge to “encourage the private sector’s contribution to addressing global challenges and strengthen their accountability towards the implementation of United Nations frameworks” and build on this aspiration with concrete follow-up actions.

Recommendation 2
The Pact must explicitly articulate the role of Member States in ensuring the digital sectors accountability
WBA supports that the Pact calls on the digital sector to respect human rights and uphold ethical principles in the development. The annexed Global Digital Compact (GDC) builds on this and articulates the responsibilities that digital companies bear in the realms of human rights, digital trust and safety, and information integrity. This is one of the first international frameworks dedicated to digitalisation and digital cooperation, and comprehensively spotlights the responsibility of digital companies, alongside Member States, in advancing the objectives of the 2030 Agenda. However, Member States must critically acknowledge their role in leading the development of accountability frameworks for digital technology companies to ensure “multistakeholder” digital governance adequately serves the publics needs and lays the necessary global norms and regulatory foundations for the digital space, and doesn’t result in industry self-policing.

Recommendation 3
UN Member States must build on their commitment in the Pact to strengthen private sector accountability and define next steps
WBA urges the UN and Member States to expand on the Pact by establishing a clear process, in consultation with stakeholders, to enhance private sector accountability in implementing UN frameworks. This should begin with Member States defining business responsibilities and integrating them into established UN processes, such as the Global Plastics Treaty, the Biodiversity Plan, or the Paris Agreement, or by introducing a global norm on the expectations for impactful company reporting. Private sector accountability must become a standard at the intergovernmental level, integral to current and future UN agreements. 2025 holds opportunity to take this forward, such as through the 4^th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), Second World Summit on Social Development and UN Climate Change Conference (COP30).

WBA stands ready to support the advancement of this agenda. By providing data and insights on company performance in relation to global agendas, and collaborating with the 400+ multistakeholder organisations in our Alliance, we are committed to work with UN Member States on taking this forward.

If you’d like to learn more get in touch with Charlotte Reeves, Global Engagement Lead: c.reeves@worldbenchmarkingalliance.org