Marking the UN Global Compact’s 15th anniversary, Global Compact +15, a three-day event taking place at the UN Headquarters in New York, will bring business and civil society to the United Nations to show how the private sector is taking action and partnering to advance societal priorities.

A number of focused meetings on subjects including human rights and labour, children’s rights, anti-corruption and UN-business partnerships will be convened over the course of the first two days, culminating on the final day with an interactive round table discussion held in the UN’s General Assembly Hall.

Reading PhD researcher Lorenzo Todorow di San Giorgio (Henley Business School) will be participating in the discussions regarding how to contribute to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Lorenzo’s role will be as an academic expert and advisor on multi-stakeholder dialogue initiatives, which are one of the core activities of the Global Compact.  These sessions will be a unique gathering of all participants and special guests who will join together seeking to demonstrate to Governments, the private sector’s critical role in solving our world’s greatest challenges and show how the Global Compact’s work is central to the United Nations agenda.

Lorenzo’s doctoral research focuses on stakeholder dialogues and has already involved data collection and analysis of two multi-stakeholder dialogue initiatives organised by the UNGlobal Compact (UNGC) and the UN Principle for Responsible Investment (PRI) as part of the “Business for peace in conflict affected areas” project.  The results of his analysis have been shared at the Annual International Conference of the UNGC held in Istanbul in September 2014.