In June the UN published a book on its growing number of partnerships with business, to tackle a range challenges in the pursuit of broad UN goals. 16 Building Partnerships provides an overview of the evolving relationship between the UN and the private sector, ranging from traditional procurement and consultative arrangements, which have been in place since the founding of the UN in 1945, to the new types of innovative partnership that have emerged in recent years.

With more than 150 examples of UN–business partnerships, the book, authored by Jane Nelson of the International Business Leaders’ Forum (IBLF), showcases a range of partnerships on issues such as enterprise development and access to education, health, water, energy, information technology and capital, to conflict prevention and support for human rights and governance.

These partnerships include the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Task Force which works to harness information and communications technology for development. 17 It also includes the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), which includes pharmaceutical companies in efforts to provide immunisation services to ensure that all children, however poor, have equal access to vaccines. 18 Expressions of concern about this particular relationship, and debates within the World Health Organisation (WHO) about the pros and cons of working with pharmaceutical companies were reported in previous World Reviews.

For some in the UN system, business is becoming too close for comfort. Peter Utting of the UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) believes that 'various UN institutions appear to be paying insufficient attention to certain risks associated with partnerships, including conflicts of interest, self-censorship, the poor choice of partners and the tarnishing of the UN's reputation'.

Whereas UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is pleased to claim that 'the doors of the United Nations are open as never before to the dynamic constellation of non-state actors', Peter Utting cautions that, 'if institutions such as governments or UN agencies are to serve the public interest, they must keep a certain distance from the private sector'. As the Director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Carol Bellamy previously expressed, an organisation such as the United Nations is driven by a set of ethical principles while business and industry are driven by the profit motive. She warned that 'it is dangerous to assume that the goals of the private sector are somehow synonymous with those of the United Nations, because they most emphatically are not'. Therefore Utting believes that 'tensions and conflicts of interest are likely to arise when private interests exert undue influence over the decision-making processes of public-interest organisations'. 19 He recommends that UN agencies make an effort to assess the track record of particular companies before entering into partnerships, as UNICEF has tried to do, and to periodically review performance. 'Consultations with civil society organisations could play a role in these processes', Utting says.

Another possibility, he suggests, is a central UN repository of information about the behaviour of corporations, which agen-cies and others could consult before entering into partnerships, such as the UN Centre on Transnational Corporations, which existed prior to 1992 when it was abolished partly due to pressure from certain member governments.

One of the initiatives profiled in the new UN book, the Global Compact, is not currently able to fulfil a watchdog role, as it relies on companies reporting on their practices, and as efforts are focused on learning about best (and improving) practice rather than monitoring and sham-ing poor practice.

In its current form the Compact appears attractive to industry around the globe. In May, the Global Compact was officially launched in Japan. More than 120 people from 73 Japanese companies attended the event. Yuzaburo Mogi, the Chief Executive Officer of Kikkoman, discussed the process that led Kikkoman to engage in the Global Compact, while Mr Yoshiharu Fukuhara, Honorary Chairman of Shiseido, highlighted the importance of responsible business practices in the context of globalisation.

In Manila that month, the Employers' Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) held its National conference, at which 146 companies pledged their support for the Global Compact by presenting letters of commitment addressed to the UN Secretary General. Speaking at the conference, senior officer of the Global Compact, Fred Dubee, suggested that participating organ-isations set clear goals with associated strategies and time-frames for implementation. Also speaking there, the President of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, said that ECOP's support of the Global Compact complements her own government's programmes to combat poverty and bring about social reform.

Whether the Global Compact will be a catalyst for business support for the role of government in providing public services and effectively regulating the market is yet to be seen. This will be key for critics who fear that voluntary initiatives in general and partnerships in particular support a broader agenda that aims to further weaken the regulatory role of the state.