Terms For Endearment Business, Nods And Sustainable Development. - Review - book review

Contributing Editor: Jem Bendell

GREENLEAF PUBLISHING LTD IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE NEW ACADEMY OF BUSINESS 2000 [pound]16.95, $30.00 paperback

Businesses and NGOs concerned about social and environmental justice are seen by many to be locked in a perpetual war of values and ideologies. As the recent debate between George Monbiot and Jonathon Porritt in this magazine shows, the argument between 'fundamentalists', who are sceptical of any common ground, and 'realists', who actively seek it, has lost little of its heat in recent years.

Few would deny that corporations, especially the biggest ones, are enormously powerful. But can profit-maximising entities with limited liability ever be a force for good if the right systems of regulation and accountability are in place? And can civil society -- in the form of NGOs and their allies -- help bring such systems into being? Or will they inevitably be captured, just as government often is, by vested commercial interests?

Terms for Endearment aims to help lay the groundwork for NGOs to smooch more safely and productively with the big business beast, so that it can mend its ways. Today's battles, argues the editor, are often fought within companies themselves, as those who understand the strategic importance of environmental issues and 'stakeholder' relations struggle with those who are not convinced.

If you are an NGO campaigner or sympathiser, then, even if you don't agree with this premise, there is material here that will help in the preparation of future campaigns by providing insights into how companies operate.

The book is also intended to help those in companies who are looking for a hot date with civil society. For readers coming from that direction there's plenty to chew on too: as numerous case studies in the volume show, not every case of NGO-business interaction can be 'win-win', and the dangers of trying to 'manage stakeholder pressure to corporate advantage' are very clearly spelt out.

Either way, Terms for Endearment is useful for the essential task of achieving a better understanding of where power lies and what drives NGOs, businesses and the political process. At the same time, such analysis cannot be the whole story: the Gramscian division of society into three overlapping sectors of government, the market and civil society can only be a simplification of limited scope.

Relations between business and NGOs range from the strongly antagonistic to the collaborative, but, according to a prediction by David Korten ten years ago, a 'fourth generation' of NGOs is emerging, which aims to build 'a critical mass of independent, decentralised initiative in support of a social vision'. Part of this strategy is building links between different NGOs and addressing the more structural issues at the heart of social and environmental problems. Whereas third generation NGOs 'seek changes in specific policies and institutions', the fourth generation are bringing together loosely defined networks of people and organisations across national borders in North and South to transform the institutions of global society. The pressure to do so results from the lopsided nature of globalisation: trade, finance and business have whizzed ahead while governance and accountability have fallen way behind.

NGOs have considerable resources for the task ahead. Worldwide, their turnover is thought to be at least $1.ltrillion. By some estimates, they provide more aid than the World Bank and employ more than 19 million people. New information and communication technology also provide many NGOs with greater knowledge, voice and power. Although the vast majority of the world's poor and powerless do not have access to information technology, growing numbers of NGOs do. The flow of information around the world during political uprisings and following disappearances or murders of notable campaigners lends added political weight to such events. Thanks to cyberspace, absolute control over information access is no longer possible -- although you have to be plucky to flout the controls in places like Liberia, China and Burma.

As for the big corporations, some of their most expensive consultants tell them they will need to work hard to maintain a social 'licence to operate'. A 1997 report by London-based Control Risks Group describes 'the pressure on companies, wherever they operate, to adopt the highest international environmental, labour and ethical standards'. According to this report, 'heightened international scrutiny, means that perceived transgressors truly have 'no hiding place'.

The 18 chapters cover a huge range of industries and regions. One of the most interesting contributions comes from Simon Heap and Penny Fowler, who consider whether there is an emerging model for environmental and social certification overseen by councils comprised of multiple stakeholders. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is the second multi-stakeholder council, being based on the original Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). By comparing the separate processes to establish the FSC and MSC, Heap and Fowler highlight key issues in other sectors such as mining, oil and agriculture. They argue that the FSC was a bottom-up process led by members while the MSC has been a top-down process led by experts, and this difference has meant that the MSC faces more attacks on its legitimacy, especially from Southern NGOs.

The conclusion touches on some of the crucial points in the future direction of relations between business and civil society. The authors argue that as campaigners in various NGOs are beginning to recognise the common threads of their individual efforts to influence corporate behaviour, there is the growth of a powerful new social movement, which they term the 'corporate accountability movement'. The key issues, they argue, relate to areas of corporate transparency, accountability and financing. A major part of the solution, it is suggested, will be global 'civil regulation':

'Global business is just beginning to be regulated by a global civil society, a situation that provides some promise for a just and sustainable global order in the 21st century, while showing significant shortcomings and posing major political challenges. A key challenge is to bring some order to what is a very anarchic process at present, to build the necessary institutions as quickly as possible, and to ensure that democratic principles are upheld.'

That's a neat summary of a Herculean task in which partners for sustainability would be well advised to count their fingers after every handshake, and keep a sharp eye on where the power and money flows.

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