16.12.2009

Kyiv

Annual Meeting of the Global Compact Network in Ukraine

The regular annual meeting of the GC network in Ukraine took place at the Opera Hotel on 16 December, 2009. Traditionally, the meeting was dedicated to the discussion of the 2009 achievements and development of the network's plan for 2010.

This year key-note speaker was Mr. Max Alier, IMF Resident Representative in Ukraine, who noted in his address to the audience the importance of cooperation between different sectors of the society in times of crisis. “The global economic and financial crisis has reached its bottom and the country gradually begins to recover from the downturn facing serious challenges such as unemployment.  For Ukraine these challenges will be difficult, but their solution is not possible without cooperation and dialogues between private sector, labour, government, international organizations”, - said Mr. Alier. Summarizing network’s activities and achievements in 2009 Mr. Jock Mendoza-Wilson, Global Compact Steering Committee Head, reported that 14 new members joined the network in 2009 and the overall number of participants reached 141 organisations.  In 2009 the GC network played a leadership role in promoting such topics as environment protection and climate change, development of the National agenda on CSR, CSR and media, mainstreaming CSR into the higher education system.  Next year will be marked by the “niche strategy” of the network with the deeper specialization on these topics.

Among the priorities areas selected for 2010 there are climate change awareness raising, support to the Verkhovna Rada`s Committee on Industrial and Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship on the development of the CSR national strategy, and continuous cooperation with the Ministry of Science and Education on mainstreaming CSR into business education.  To ensure the productive dialogue between the CSR stakeholders in Ukrainethe GC network will also engage into the GC regional presentations, thematic conferences, trainings and round table discussions on CSR-related issue.The second session of the meeting was focused on the analysis of the social reporting in Ukraine.  One of the highlights of the session was the analytical review provided by Mr. Volodymyr Vorobey from the CSR Community of Practice.  According to Mr. Vorobey among the characteristics of the current communications on progress from the Ukrainian companies there are the absence of baseline indicators to measure the progress, the lack of reference to the national sustainable development strategy and the tendency to complete narrative rather than quantitative report.  However, the expert expects that the quality as well as the level of the interest towards non-financial reporting will increase substantially in 2010.

Summarising the experience of the joint mini-project on social reporting realised by the GC network and the Center for CSR Development in July-September 2009, Ms. Olena Tregub, underlined the importance of the best practices accumulation in social reporting.

The meeting ended with a very active Q&A session followed by the informal networking over a glass of wine.

The agenda and presentations of the meeting are available here
Photo materials can be viewed here.