Luanda – The Angolan construction company, Omatapalo, has become the first construction company to join the United Nations (UN) Global Compact, a major sustainable corporate initiative in the world with the aim of guiding companies' strategies towards the Ten Universal Principles and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
With this achievement, Angola now has 23 companies on this platform, which currently brings together more than 24,500 companies from different areas and 167 countries, as well as hundreds of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), official bodies and UN agencies.
Announced in 1999 by the then secretary-general of the United Nations Organization (UN), the Ghanaian Kofi Annan during the Davos World Summit and was officially release in 2000, the Global Pact demands that the strategy and operations of the companies should be aligned to the universal principals related to human rights, work, envirnment and anti-corruption.
By signing up to the pact, companies must work towards the fulfilment of the 17 UN SDGs through a logic of collaboration and innovation in areas such as poverty reduction, gender equality, climate change and decent work, as well as the commitment to annually inform the progresses of the implementation of the 10 principles in its structures related to business, culture and daily operations.
According to a press release ANGOP had access on Monday, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Omatapalo, Pedro Santos consider of great importance and pride the joining of his company in the United Nations Global Pact as it strenghtens the responsability of the company and contributes in order for the business to have positive impact on peoples, communities and societies.
In turn, the director of the Global Pact in Angola, Eliana dos Santos, praises the joining of Omatapalo and considers importantthe need for strong and united voices to defend the 10 Principles and the SDGs with the aim to fight the injustices suffered by so many people.
"Let's be the change we want to see in the world and let's turn global goals into local business," she appealed.
Encouraging dialogue between companies, governments, civil society and other stakeholders, as well as seeking to develop a fairer, more inclusive and sustainable global market are also among the initiative's objectives.
In the face of geopolitical uncertainties and other global instabilities, the UN Global Compact ensures 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 Labour Organisation'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 Pact requires companies to support and respect the protection of internationally recognised human rights; defend freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining, effectively abolish child labour, undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility and act against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.
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