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Canadian Social Investment Representatives address UN Meeting

Two representatives of the Canadian social investment community have sketched out a policy and advocacy agenda for world governments and agencies in a broad vision to expand socially responsible investment and corporate responsibility.

On Jan. 10, Robert Walker, VP SRI Policy and Research for Ethical Funds and Peter Chapman, Executive Director of the Shareholder Association for Research and Education, addressed a meeting of the preparatory committee for the March 2002 UN International Conference on Financing for Development. This conference will be the first summit-level meeting convened by the United Nations to address key financial and related issues pertaining to global development. The conference will help set the agenda for the Earth Summit in South Africa in September 2002.

In his presentation, Walker called for a wide-ranging set of policy options to encourage socially responsible investment and corporate responsibility. These include:

	Broadening the definition of fiduciary duty;
	Integrating socially responsible investing principles into public investment policy;
	Establishing disclosure regulations that help investors integrate social and environmental values into the investment process;
	Implementation of disclosure laws as part of securities listing requirements;
	Establishing international securities regulation and accounting standards;
	Supporting civil and political rights and freedoms around the world;
	Implementing rules and regulations that allow shareholders to bring broader stakeholder concerns to the attention of corporate managers;
	Promoting disclosure of social and environmental criteria used to make investment decisions, if any, among mutual funds and pension funds.

"The UN, its associated agencies, international development banks, international regulatory agencies, and domestic governments can put in place the legislative and regulatory environment that can help encourage the expansion of SRI and allow shareholders to bring to the table broader stakeholder concerns as we advance to a more inclusive and equitable global economic system," Walker said.

Chapman echoed these recommendations. He identified the following next steps:

Encourage the formal recognition of the roles and responsibilities of investors for financing just and sustainable development, and the clarification of laws governing the fiduciary duties of pension and other trustees as they relate to the application of social and environmental criteria;

· Strengthen provisions in corporate and securities laws to encourage greater transparency and accountability regarding the social and environmental effects of corporate operations, and to ensure recognition of shareholders rights that facilitate shareholder communication on issues of corporate governance and corporate social responsibility;

· Explore mechanisms for linking the assurance of corporate social responsibility standards with the building of capacity by national governments to enforce environmental, social and labour standards; and

· Encourage broad governmental, labour and civil society participation in setting standards for and promoting appropriate corporate and securities law, notably the World Bank-OECD Global Corporate Governance Forum.

For more information on the event, visit Ethical Funds Inc.

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