For African business, ending corruption is ‘priority number one’ - Interview: Georg Kell, Executive Director, The Global Compact

The United Nations Global Compact is an initiative to encourage businesses to voluntarily adhere to ethical standards. Launched a decade ago in 2000, the initiative now has about 7,700 corporate participants and stakeholders in 130 countries, including 297 firms in 29 sub-Saharan African nations. Most recently, a high-level business leaders summit in New York on 24-25 June, organized by the Global Compact, declared that “embedding human rights, labour, environmental and anti-corruption principles into corporate practices benefits both society and business.” Just before the summit, Africa Renewal spoke with Executive Director Georg Kell about the Compact’s anti-corruption work.