Luanda – The Angola Stock Exchange and Derivatives (BODIVA) was admitted, this month, as a member of the United Nations Global Compact, the largest corporate sustainability initiative in the world.
The Global Compact aims to align companies' strategies with the 10 Universal Principles and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
With the admission of BODIVA, Angola has 24 companies on this platform, which currently brings together more than 24,500 companies from different sectors, from 167 countries, as well as hundreds of NGOs, unions, official entities and UN agencies.
This achievement reinforces its commitment to the development of sustainable instruments in the national market, according to a press release to which ANGOP had access this Tuesday.
According to the document, BODIVA's active participation in association symposiums has been fundamental for the development of the national capital market and its tools.
Announced in 1999 by the then Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), Kofi Annan, at the Davos World Forum, and officially launched in 2000, the Global Compact requires that companies' strategies and operations be aligned with universal principles linked to human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption.
By joining the Pact, companies must work towards fulfilling the 17 United Nations SDGs, in a collaboration and innovation way, in areas such as poverty reduction, gender equality, climate change and decent work, as well as committing to annually communicate progress in implementing the 10 principles in its business structures, culture and daily operations.
Encouraging dialogue between companies, governments, civil society and other components, as well as the search for the development of a fairer, more inclusive and sustainable global market are also among the objectives of this initiative.
The Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact are derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labor Organization 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 Pact obliges companies to support and respect the protection of internationally recognized human rights; defend freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; effective abolition of child labor; undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and act against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.
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