Private Sector

Policy

• © UNESCO/Burke, Niamh

Strategic partnerships and cooperative alliances with the private sector must be founded upon mutual trust and respect. Our objective is to help build such trust upon the foundations of performance, accountability and transparency.

UNESCO’s framework for partnership with the private sector is based upon the UN Guidelines on cooperation with the business community and the UN Global Compact.

The UN Guidelines assist UNESCO in concerting its activities in this area with the network of private sector focal points of the UN system.


The UN Global Compact establishes ten principles to be enacted and supported by the business community in their sphere of influence; a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labour standards, the environment and anti-corruption.


As reasserted by Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, ‘UNESCO is a multi-stakeholder forum which seeks to bring the best out of a variety of global, regional, national and local networks. Our primary purpose, therefore, is not the generation of supplementary funds but the promotion of linkages and dialogue through which private and corporate entities can contribute to peace, development and other goals pursued by the organization.’