Kumi Naidoo
Honorary President, CIVICUS

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“Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.”
Article 29, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) framed the essence of the contract for human-to-human behaviour. And since the UDHR is for ‘every organ of society’, this same tenet of interdependency applies to the contract between groups, including the relationship between business and communities. Business can only realize its full potential through integrating duties to community in core objective setting and operating structure.

Any business — local, national or global — has numerous communities to which it is duty-bound, like the environment in which it operates, the political constructs within which it does business, the consumers who buy from it, the sub-contractors who perform for it and the local communities that provide its labour force. The contract is not new at all. A growing number of businesses are evaluating their value chains and seeking ways to better fulfill their obligations today, but the current response from business leaders is still woefully inadequate given the challenges we now face.

Today we find ourselves in a perfect storm as we see a convergence of different crisis that threatens humanity in fundamental ways. Poverty continues to trap millions in lives of despair. Women and children live in fear in too many places. We continue to witness the horrors of genocide. The financial crisis, brought about in part due to indefensible practice by leaders of financial institutions threatens to exacerbate the current situation as people lose jobs and livelihoods. The catastrophic climate crisis is already claiming its victims as we start talking about climate refugees and disappearing glaciers and rising sea levels; and every passing month brings new evidence that seems to spell doom. If we do not act with boldness, today’s problems will feel like a picnic compared with what lies ahead and clearly we cannot have a “business as usual” approach. The changes that are needed will be painful and incremental tinkering will not suffice. If we are to save the planet for future generations and address the urgent challenges that confront us now painful choices need to be made.

We need to transform governance arrangements and the content of public policy and be significantly more innovative about how we implement bold policies that can deliver, social and economic justice, in a sustainable way for future generations. This will include more effective ways in which government, civil society and business can work together. A more cooperative approach is critically needed and we need to reorient our thinking about the culture of competitiveness between businesses, between countries and so on.

Importantly, we have to create a more equal world. The level of inequality that exists is not sustainable in addition to being grossly unjust. A new social compact is necessary that moves from notions of charity and instead embrace the values of justice. The business community needs to see their consumers and customers as first and foremost as citizens. Political leaders need to see their constituents not simply as voters but as citizens. And both business and political leaders need to do more to open up space for citizens to take private action for the public good by creating an enabling environment for ordinary men and women to be able to be part of the solution through civil society organisations, such as faith based groups, non-profit organisations, labour organisations and so on. The perfect storm we are in calls for cooperation, change and courage like we have never seen ever before.