Sri Lanka hosts UN Global Compact’s exchange program

Global Compact Network Ceylon hosted the United Nations Global Compact’s Local Networks Exchange Program in Sri Lanka recently. Organised jointly with the UN Global Compact Office in New York, the four-day event convened Global Compact officials and representatives of Local Networks from Sri Lanka, India, Egypt, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

The Global Compact, based on a commitment to 10 universally accepted principles, is a practical framework for the development, implementation, and disclosure of sustainability policies and practices, offering participants a wide spectrum of work streams, management tools and resources — all designed to help advance sustainable business models and markets.

With over 10,000 corporate participants and other stakeholders from over 130 countries, it is the largest voluntary corporate responsibility initiative in the world.

Local networks are clusters of participants who come together to advance the United Nations Global Compact and its principles within a particular geographic context. Local Networks perform increasingly important roles in rooting the Global Compact within different national, cultural and language contexts, facilitating the progress of companies with respect to sustainability, and creating opportunities for multi-stakeholder engagement.

The exchange program seeks to foster collaboration among Local Networks by providing an opportunity to share experiences and identify best practices across regional boundaries. Contact persons from various networks gather at a particular network and participate in practical working sessions, with the goal of developing an in-depth analysis of the challenges and opportunities associated with Local Network operation.

Topics featured during the program in Sri Lanka included management of local networks, local network structure and governance model, sustainability of local networks, knowledge sharing system, communication on progress training, management toolkit, collaboration mechanisms between other local networks, social platform and communication, and collective and policy dialogues.  The program featured field tours of MAS Thurulie – the green apparel manufacturing plant at Thulhiriya – as well as Panawatte and Dewalakande estates belonging to Kelani Valley Plantations (Hayleys). The participants were showcased world-class environmentally friendly practices, and exemplary human resources management initiatives at the remarkable the MAS Thrurulie facility.

“The Sri Lankan Local Network is proud to play an active role in empowering Local Networks to complement Global Compact Office activities and to fully engage the increasing number of Global Compact participants,” said Sutheash Balasubramaniam, Network Representative of the Local Network Sri Lanka.   

“We are pleased to have been able to exchange knowledge with other local networks and showcase some of Sri Lanka’s best practices in corporate sustainability on a global platform. The local network in Sri Lanka is committed to showcasing best practices from the Sri Lankan private sector on global platforms afforded by the UN Global Compact,” he added.

The exchange program participants joined the Asia-Pacific network representatives at the joint-day sessions where they met with the members of the Sri Lankan Local Network board and steering committee comprised of representatives from Aitken Spence, Aspirations Education, Brandix, Commercial Bank, Dialog, Hayleys, Holcim, MAS, SLINTEC, Unilever and Virtusa, as well as representatives of the network’s member companies and UN agencies Sri Lanka.