CEO Water Mandate Secretariat: Note on “Public Eye Awards”

(New York, 22 January 2010) – The Secretariat of the UN Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate issues the following note in response to the “Public Eye Awards,” scheduled to be announced on 27 January in Davos, Switzerland, as part of a “counter-gala” occurring during the World Economic Forum. In doing so, the Secretariat wishes to address – for the benefit of Mandate endorsers and other interested stakeholders – a number of basic misrepresentations being promulgated by organizations associated with the “Public Eye Awards.”

1. The CEO Water Mandate, launched by the UN Secretary-General in July 2007, is based on the conviction that the private sector is an important stakeholder with respect to the global water crisis and can play a positive role through more efficient corporate water management and other proactive measures that benefit the world’s most vulnerable. In addition to advancing corporate water stewardship concepts and practices, the initiative has consisted of on-the-ground collective actions such as the endorser sign-on letter to Group of Eight leaders urging them to live up to their Millennium Development Goal commitments. At present, many CEO Water Mandate endorsers are directly supporting UN disaster-relief efforts underway in Haiti as part of their commitment to the CEO Water Mandate.

2.  The CEO Water Mandate Secretariat appreciates and understands that there are differences of opinion with respect to the role of the private sector in relation to global water challenges. It is clear that certain individuals and groups feel strongly that the private sector has little or no role to play, and indeed that involving the private sector in water issues runs contrary to the public’s interest. At the same time, there are many organizations, including prominent NGOs, who recognize the business community as a significant user of water resources and believe in working with business organizations to improve their water footprints and impacts in ways that benefit society, including by contributing to the Millennium Development Goals. This fundamental belief in the key role businesses can and should play in advancing sustainable water management is the basis of the CEO Water Mandate.

3. The CEO Water Mandate is a relatively young initiative but nonetheless has established advanced accountability and transparency mechanisms, both for endorsing companies and the initiative as a whole. Endorsers of the CEO Water Mandate are required to report annually on the ways in which they are implementing the Mandate’s six core elements, per the Transparency Policy. Failure to communicate progress will ultimately result in an endorser being publicly delisted from the initiative.

4. The required “Communications on Progress” reports are publicly available on the CEO Water Mandate’s website. The Secretariat invites interested stakeholders to read these important reports, which contain a wide array of examples on how companies are taking real-life actions that enhance water sustainability through their implementation of the Mandate’s core elements. The Mandate Secretariat has also commissioned an independent audit of the initiative’s first year of activities, which it has made public on the Mandate website for purposes of accountability.

5. While only two years old, the CEO Water Mandate has already made significant contributions that have advanced corporate water stewardship thinking and practice. The initiative’s Water Disclosure 2.0 - Assessment of Current and Emerging Practice in Corporate Water Reporting publication demonstrated how better and more expansive disclosure is critical for understanding the true risks and impacts associated with companies’ water needs. Its From Footprint to Public Policy publication elucidated the shared interest among the public and private sector actors in more sustainable water management. And its Water and Human Rights: Exploring the Roles and Responsibilities of Business discussion paper put forward practical measures companies could implement to operationalize the human right to water.

6. The CEO Water Mandate is presently focused on three workstreams, all of which serve the public interest, and all involving multistakeholder participation from business, civil society, and other interests. These are:

i.    Responsible Business Engagement with Water Policy and Management: In collaboration with WWF International, the Mandate is currently drafting the Guide on Business Engagement with Water Policy and Management, which will provide principles, concepts, practical steps, and case examples that can facilitate companies’ responsible engagement with water policy. The scope and content of the Guide has been shaped through a public consultation process (Aug.-Sept. 2009) and a full draft of the Guide will open for public comment in March 2010.

ii.     Water and Human Rights: Building on its past work with the Institute for Human Rights and Business and the UN Office of the High Commission on Human Rights, the Mandate is developing operational guidance that will assist companies with principles and implementation practices that are consistent with and advance the human right to water.

iii.    Corporate Water Disclosure: The Mandate is continuing to advance its guidance and framework to improve companies’ ability to effectively communicate their water practices and performance. This work entails developing guidance on more consistent and meaningful ways of disclosing qualitative water-related information, as well as building methods and guidance to support companies in better understanding relevant water-related information to disclose.

Contact

Mr Gavin Power
Deputy Director
UN Global Compact
powerg@un.org