The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 - form a blueprint agreed to by all the world's countries and all the world's leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world's poorest. These Millennium Development Goals provide a framework of 18 time-bound targets, which progress can be measured by 48 indicators defined by the document untitled "Indicators for monitoring progress of the MDGs".

he United Nations Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. As a leadership initiative endorsed by chief executives, the UN Global Compact aims to advance two complementary objectives: mainstream the ten principles in business activities around the world and catalyse actions in support of broader UN goals, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). To avoid any risk of exclusion, any company joining the initiative is expected to provide an annual “Communication on Progress” report. The GRI’s reporting framework provides guidance on how organizations can disclose their sustainability performance.

This short publication provides a high-level overview of the key linkages between the UN Global Compact's Ten Principles and the core subjects of social responsibility defined by
ISO 26000 (human rights, labour practices, the environment, fair operating practices, consumer issues, community involvement).
While not an exhaustive review of the numerous areas of alignment between the two initiatives, this publication shows that there is clear consistency - and that all UN Global Compact Principles are included in ISO 26000.

Developed and coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), the UN Global Compact and a group of the world's largest institutional investors, the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRIs) consist in six voluntary Principles which aim to integrate social and environmental factors into the financial practices. The signatory companies submit themselves to communicate each year on the application of the Principles. The document entitled "Reporting and Assessment Manual" guides the companies in this task.

 In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development adopts the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. It consists in 27 Principles designed to commit governments to ensure environmental protection and responsible development. It establishes a set of rights and duties on environmental issues in order to achieve sustainable development. The Rio Declaration is not legally binding the states but governments are strongly incited to subscribe to these Principles. 

The Johannesburg Declaration on sustainable development of 2002 constitutes another  founder instrument of the concept of sustainable development, reaffirming, in 37 points, principles of the Rio Declaration as well as outlining others principles and ways to improve the realization of these objectives.In particular, the Declaration affirms in its point 29 : "We agree that there is a need for private sector corporations to enforce corporate accountability, which should take place within a transparent and stable regulatory environment".