Rédaction Africa Links 24 with ANGONOTÍCIAS
Published on 2024-02-27 23:45:18
The Angolan construction company Omatapalo has become the first company in the construction sector to join the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative that aims to align companies’ strategies with the Ten Universal Principles and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
With Omatapalo’s integration, Angola now has 23 companies in this platform, which currently brings together more than 24,500 companies from various sectors and 167 countries, as well as hundreds of NGOs, unions, government entities, and UN agencies.
Announced in 1999 by the then United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and officially launched in 2000, the Compact requires companies to align their strategies and operations with universal principles related to human rights, labor, the environment, and anti-corruption.
By joining the Compact, companies are required to work towards fulfilling the United Nations’ 17 SDGs through collaboration and innovation in areas such as poverty reduction, gender equality, climate change, decent work, and to commit to annually report progress in implementing the 10 principles in their business structures, culture, and daily operations.
Quoted in a press release accessed by ANGOP on Monday, the Chairman of Omatapalo, Pedro Santos, considers the company’s integration into the United Nations Global Compact to be of extreme importance and pride, reinforcing the construction company’s responsibility and contributing to positive impacts on people, communities, and societies.
Meanwhile, the Director of the Global Compact in Angola, Eliana dos Santos, praises Omatapalo’s integration, highlighting the importance of the need for brave and united voices to defend the 10 Principles and the SDGs in order to combat the injustices suffered by so many people.
“Let us be the change we wish to see in the world and let us transform global objectives into local businesses,” she appealed.
Encouraging dialogue between companies, governments, civil society, and other stakeholders, as well as seeking the development of a more fair, inclusive, and sustainable global market, are also among the goals of this initiative.
Amid geopolitical uncertainties and other global instabilities, the United Nations Global Compact ensures the existence of a safer and more sustainable world.
The Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact are derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labor Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the United Nations Convention against Corruption.
Among the principles, the Compact requires companies to support and respect the protection of internationally recognized human rights; uphold freedom of association and effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; the effective abolition of child labor; undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and act against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.
Read the original article (Portuguese) on Angonoticias
