Global Fund is Required for Responsible Business

Toby Webb, founder of Ethical Corporation, said that a fund set up and governed by an independent board of individuals whose reputations and motivations were beyond question could run training, capacity building and monitoring programmes for areas such as customs reform, buildings and health and safety inspection.

Ethical Corporation's annual Responsible Business Summit in London saw business leaders and NGOs raise questions about effective factory auditing regimes, building safety standards and the role of brands, governments and NGOs in ensuring this sort of tragedy doesn't occur again.

Mr Webb said: "A global fund could fill a gap and target specific areas where funding is weak, for example, the training of institutions in emerging economies is often an area where expertise is lacking.

"Building inspections, health and safety legal enforcement, and customs reform are all neglected areas for aid and development funding, yet vitally important in encouraging better, legal trade.

"Companies are now banding together to begin to try to tackle systemic issues in their specific industries. But why not have a fund that is contributed to by large companies that want to solve some of the messy problems that contribute to tragedies such as the Rana Plaza building collapse?"

Mr Webb said such a fund could offer public reporting and monitoring in return for funds from business and development agencies.

He said: "It could allow companies to fund important training and capacity-building challenges without having direct decision-making control over what money goes where. This would help to eliminate the 'corporate colonialist barrier' to taking effective action on institutional capacity issues, which can strike fear in the heart of chief executives."

About Ethical Corporation

Ethical Corporation has provided business intelligence for sustainability since 2001 and its conferences are widely recognised as the best in the field. It provides objective analysis for big businesses, NGOs, think-tanks, academia, governments and service providers to the corporate sustainability industry. Ethical Corporation is 100% focused on global ethical business and how large companies are responding to the sustainable business agenda.

Its flagship conference is the Responsible Business Summit, which takes place during the first week of May each year in London. In the past three years the summit has expanded to New York, and will take place in Asia for the first time this year.

For further information contact Nicola Collenette: [email protected] or Zoe Scorer: [email protected] both on +44(0)1223-393-812.