Q6: How can business best promote diversity, gender and ethnic equal opportunities and representative decision-making?

- Ensuring values, strategies, processes and relationships promote diversion and inclusion

- Ensuring diversity at all levels of the company

Q5: Moving to advocating for SDG16, how can business best build credibility and trust?

- strengthening their license to operate

- making values, ethics and integrity part of their business' DNA and across all company layers / having a clear purpose beyond generating profits

- showing transparent and inclusive decision-making (including communities and other relevant stakeholder groups), being more representative of society as a whole

- limiting social and environmental negative impacts

- being consistent with their words vs. action => lead by example, walk the talk!

- trust is based on transparency and honesty

Q4: Should business provide support in shaping government policy on societal issues?

Society is calling on business to take a stand on societal issues.

Yes: business can support governments on the implementation of guiding principles relating to citizen security, restorative justice, anti-corruption... // business should provide feedback on policy matters // business can make policy development processes more inclusive by helping other voices get heard // business can support through multi-stakeholder initiatives // areas like climate change are key, business can support emergency preparedness and response

Concerns: need to ensure it is done transparently and grounded in ethics and integrity, including respect for human rights // need to ensure it is ultimately addressing societal issues 

Addressing concerns: in order to ensure this support is in society's best interest, civil society needs to be included in the process and multi-stakeholder formats need to be innovative and enable co-creation 

Q3: Should business contribute to government capacity building?

Yes: through multi-stakeholder consultations and collaborative training, deploying technical expertise, providing funding, enabling access to justice, providing information and research, collaborating in stakeholder consultations

Concerns: it is not the role of business to fulfil the role of the state - when the lines are blurred, the results are not ideal // ensuring effectiveness and usefulness for both government and businesses // overcoming perceptions of business being "too close" to government // the urgency of the issue

Q2: What does transparency from business look like in the anti-corruption space?

- Compliance at the very least

- Express commitment externally and engage all levels within the organisation

- Code of conducts (including detencion, prevention and responce mechanisms)

- Regular and open reporting on payments made to government

- Zero tolerance and whistleblower policies

- Beneficial ownership and illicit financial flows

- Respect for human rights (nexus to corruption)

- Refusing business from companies involved in corruption

Challenges:  blurred lines (e.g when does nepotism become corruption?) / acting in isolation / enforcement of company policies across all parties: gap between company and supplier practices

Q1: What are the risk and opportunities for business that make SDG16 a priority?

Businesses cannot successfully operate in a society that does not have peace. 

Businesses making SDG16 a priority goes beyond compliance and towards making a positive and active contribution to the goal.

SDG16 is an entry point to the 2030 agenda.

Risks: Investment decisions are challenged by unpredictable legal frameworks, increased likelihood of human rights abuses and forced labor can have reputational impacts

Opportunities: stable, peaceful and certain business environments enable long term growth and investment, engaged/healthy/safe employees, stability of supply chains and the infrastructure businesses depend on