| Popis: |
The first of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) passed by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 2000 places a strong focus on social rights, including the alleviation of hunger and malnutrition and the achievement of full and productive employment and decent work for all. To promote the achievement of all the MDGs, the UN not only supports intergovernmental efforts but also promotes the development of public-private partnerships (PPP) with civil society and business organizations (FAO, 1996). In fact, partnering with the private sector has become an MDG in itself (MDG 8). As of now, however, we find a very mixed picture concerning the activity of PPPs in the aforementioned fields: Whereas in 2010 there were only seven transnational PPPs active in the field of hunger and malnutrition (Kaan and Liese, 2011), PPPs for decent work were far more common (ILO, 2012, 2013). As consumers and pressure groups have become more aware of the disastrous working conditions prevalent in some countries, companies have faced an ever-more acute need to find solutions to the identified problems. To increase the visibility and credibility of their efforts and to lower their transaction costs, many companies have chosen to collaborate with public and civil society institutions in PPPs. The result is a high number of initiatives and a wide variety of institutional designs, including standard-setting organizations, roundtables, and knowledge networks (for a general overview, see Utting, 2005; for an overview on these dynamics in the textile sector, see Radovich, 2006, pp. 8–16). |
