The EOC: A valid proposal for today’s world [economy]?

EOC Youth School, Mariapolis PieroLorna Gold

The World Economy Today

The World Economy Today

Four converging crises Social

InequalityEnvironmental Sustainability

Governance and

Accountability

Jobless Growth – Rent

Seeking

New Global Sustainability Framework in 2015?

Financing for Development (Addis

Ababa)JULY

Sustainable Development Goals

(New York)SEPTEMBER

Treaty on Climate Change (Paris)

DECEMBER

Rise and Concentration of Corporate Power

Is this really a problem?

Risks of Growing Corporate Influence/Concentration

• Hidden shift of accountability away from elected governments, and their role in the provision of services and human rights – into the hands of large financial and private institutions. Threaten governments with lawsuits if they seek to implement human rights standards. E.g. TTIP• Rise of corruption at all levels (but on the other hand, the rise of transparency

movements globally)• Lack of basic standards around basic standards – race to the bottom - gross

violations of human rights, fuelling conflict (e.g. in Extractives)• Crowding out independent, local business based on more sustainable practices –

locked into unjust supply chains• Exerting undue influence over political processes – from the national level all the

way up to the UN.

Duty to ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’• UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights• Putting in place essential checks and balances to address the new roles

business is playing• Legal and policy reform to address gaps

• National Action Plans• Push for a Global Treaty on Business and Human Rights• HOW TO IMPLEMENT?

‘Do More Good’

• Get beyond CSR – about building a new business agenda around the concept of doing good. Integrate the concept of ‘shared value’ right across the organisation and externally in terms of benefit to society• Developing new, innovative models of business which respond to this

challenge• Creating companies which are designed to address the major

paradoxes of society – shifting from consumerist culture to shared ownership; “less is more”; whilst creating decent jobs, especially for youth!

Is the EOC a Valid Proposition?

• The Charism of Unity is THE valid proposition!• The spirituality of unity provides the cultural tool kit to address the

complex problems we face today, including economic ones. • Spirituality teaches us to listen, to share, to dialogue, to build consensus,

to compromise, to cooperate, to generate together, to take the first step, to show mercy, to take risks, to love. It is that “soul” which translates into a myriad of initiatives• Prophetic message of the EOC – starts with really being the SOUL

8 Things the EOC brings…

1. Power of example – in our new world, small events can create big changes… 2. Integrity between the values of the business leadership and ethical values. 3. Ensuring that the whole supply chain is a ‘chain of love’ – a chain where people’s

rights and the environment is respected4. Networked capacity for creativity – and innovation5. Responding to the real needs of people – providing services and good that add to

human dignity, not diminish it6. Finding new, creative ways of sharing value – internally and within the community

through profit sharing7. Zero tolerance attitude to corruption – upholding the highest integrity; Commitment

to public good - paying fair share of taxes8. Vision of equity and sharing in practice

Ideas for the future…1. Communicating this vision – do more research on the experiences, the

impacts, and translate it into and to bring it into the leadership networks – and into the policy arena. More capacity to speak together as one.

2. Need to strengthen our own network – our strength is in unity and we need to see a blossoming of this creativity and collaboration, also involving others.

3. Need to connect with others who want to achieve the same vision as us – but use different language. Work together.

4. To do that, we need to focus on the elements which are our core strengths – what is really innovative about the EOC? It is the charism – the great ideal of unity, of universal fraternity.

And finally…• “But what is beyond the

strength of a million isolated and separate people appears possible to those who have made reciprocal love, mutual understanding and unity the motivating force of their lives.”• Chiara at UNESCO Peace Prize,

1996