Forty-five years ago, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (MNE Guidelines) introduced responsible business conduct (RBC) to position people, planet and society at the heart of business operations. The MNE Guidelines champion RBC across global economies. They are the only comprehensive international standard on RBC, covering all areas of business responsibility and backed by 50 adhering governments from all world regions accounting for 85% of foreign direct investment. Since the MNE Guidelines were introduced they have helped shape the role of global business in a rapidly changing context - globalised corporate activity has intensified, supply and distribution chains are increasingly complex, and global challenges such as climate change and inequality have accelerated. The most recent update of the MNE Guidelines dates back to 2011 and in 2021 a once-in-a-decade stocktaking is taking place to assess whether the MNE Guidelines remain fit for purpose as a means to align business conduct with society’s needs.
The National Contact Points for Responsible Business Conduct (NCPs) are agencies established by governments. Their mandate is twofold: to promote the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and related due diligence guidance, and to handle cases (referred to as “specific instances”) as a non-judicial grievance mechanism. To date, 49 governments have an NCP for RBC.
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The 9th OECD Global Forum on Responsible Business Conduct will be held virtually on 15-17 June 2021. Today’s volatile and complex global business landscape, shadowed by worsening climate change, provides a renewed urgency to make responsible business conduct (RBC) the new normal for a sustainable future. Overcoming the hurdles of a global health pandemic can be a turning point to fix our eyes more concretely on sustainability and resilience through deeper, more effective and more ambitious collaborative action to ignite, lead and advocate sustainable change in the world. Discussions at the Forum will explore what business conduct we need today in order to solve the challenges of tomorrow and whether we have the right standards and tools to make RBC the new normal in an interconnected world. Importantly, the Forum will look at how policy makers, business leaders, activists and citizens can integrate responsible business thinking into policies, action and ownership to bring remedy to people, meet the Sustainable Development Goals and tackle climate change.
