Detailed below is the Business Call to Action Declaration on the Millennium Development Goals, which 60 companies have already signed up to.
Joint Declaration
At the Millennium Summit in 2000 the world declared it would spare no effort to
achieve the seven key Millennium Development Goals.
There has been some progress. But seven years later and half way to 2015, the
world is not on track to meet that commitment.
We have just seven years to go – a few short years to make the difference for millions of people on our planet between grinding poverty and the opportunity to learn, be healthy and make enough to support their families.
We need urgent action to meet this development emergency if the world is to get back on track. With will we know we can make the difference. We can build on the progress that has been made on every continent when the right policies have been combined with sufficient resources.
But we need to go further. We need to mobilise all our efforts. The eighth Millennium pledge was that we would "develop a global partnership for development". The time has come for us all to live up to that promise. We believe we now need an international effort that harnesses the power of everyone: the private sector, individuals, consumers, faith groups, cities, civil society organisations, as well as governments, north and south, to work together to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
We believe now is the time to act, not talk. We know what needs to be done and the urgency of doing it.
So today, as leaders from the private sector, we declare our commitment to meet
this development emergency. We commit to action and because the scale of the
challenge means no one acting alone can achieve the difference we need, we call
on all parties, including the private sector, governments, civil society and
faith groups to play their part. It is only by acting together in a genuine
partnership that we can succeed.
We urge the convening of a UN meeting in 2008 that brings together heads of
government with leaders from the private sector, civil society and faith, to
review progress made in the preceding 12 months and accelerate action.
The Business Call to Action Declaration was launched with the following companies on July 31 2007:
- Cynthia Carroll, Chief Executive, Anglo American plc
- Riley Bechtel, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Bechtel Corporation
- Gunter Thielen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bertelsmann AG
- John T. Chambers, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Cisco Systems
- Chuck Prince, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Citigroup
- Nicky Oppenheimer, Chairman, De Beers Group
- Paul Walsh, Chief Executive Officer, Diageo
- Frederick W. Smith, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, FedEx
- Jeff Immelt, Chief Executive Officer, GE
- Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
- Dr. Eric Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Google Inc.
- Bernard Arnault, Chairman, LVMH
- Ian E. L. Davis, Worldwide Managing Director, McKinsey & Company, Inc.
- Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft
- Indra Nooyi, President and Chief Executive Officer, PepsiCo Inc.
- Sir Niall Fitzgerald, Chairman, Reuters Group plc
- Graham Mackay, Chief Executive, SAB Miller
- Ratan Tata, Chairman, The Tata Group
- Patrick Cescau, Group Chief Executive, Unilever PLC/Unilever N.V.
- Arun Sarin, Chief Executive Officer, Vodafone
- H. Lee Scott Jr, President and Chief Executive Officer, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
The following companies signed up to the Declaration on 6 May at the Business Call to Action event:
- Keith Clarke, CEO, Atkins
- Sam Laidlaw, Chief Executive, Centrica plc
- Mark Foster, Group CEO, Accenture
- Richard Lambort, CBI
- Neville Isdell, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Coca-Cola Company
- Deborah Leary, CEO, Forensic Pathways
- Pramath Raj Sinha, 9.9 Mediaworx Pvt Ltd
- Colin Melvin, Chief Executive, Hermes Equity Ownership Service (EOS)
- Rod McDonald, Chairman, Buro Happold
- Peter Marks, CEO, The Co-Operative Group
- Bjorn Stigson, President, World Business Council for Sustainable Development
- Yogesh Chander Deveshwar, Chairman of the Board, ITC (India)
- Carl Henric Svanberg, Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
- Stephen Rubin, Chairman, Pentland Group plc
- Peter Sands, Group Chief Executive, Standard Chartered
- Marius Kloppers, CEO, BHP Billiton
- Peter Chernin, Chief Operating Officer and President, News Corporation
- Matthew Key, Telefonica
- Justin King, CEO, Sainsbury's
- John Varley, CEO, Barclays
- John Young, Pfizer
- Hiromasa Yonekura, President, Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd
- Ozwald Boateng, Bespoke Couture Ltd
- Paul Batchelor, Chairman, Crown Agents
- Peter Gammie, Group Chief Executive, Halcrow
- Stefan Oschmann, President, Human Health, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Canada, Merck & Co.
- Shoei Utsuda, President and CEO, Mitsui & Co. Ltd
- Bradford A Mills, Chief Executive, Lonmin plc
- Paul Skinner, Chairman, Rio Tinto plc
- David Williams, CEO, Impact International
- Sandra Macleod, Chief Executive, Echo Research Ltd
- Frederico Fleury Curado, CEO, EMBRAER
- Jayant Pendharkar, Vice President, TATA
- Gautam Singhania, Chairman and MD, Raymond Limited
- Kevin Horak, MD, Clearwater Special Projects Ltd
- Larry Magor, CEO, Biwater
- Geoffrey French, Chairman, Scott Wilson Group plc
- Lord Michael Hastings CBE, Global Head of Citizenship and Diversity, KPMG International
- James Smith, Chairman, Shell
Links
- Business Call to Action
- Call to Action
- Millennium Development Goals
- How we fight poverty: Stronger economies
- How we fight poverty: Trade
Last updated: 9 May 2008