Comprehending Corporate Governance And Sustainable Development Goals

Identifying and explaining corporate governance issues, functions, and structures

Poverty is one of the major problems in the world that has been spread since 2000, all over the world with the increasing global population. The world and the UN need an intensified effort to reduce the poverty from the world. To remove the poverty a comprehensive approach is needed by the people from all around the world. Low income, hunger, and rate of death because of poverty are increasing day by day especially in poor countries such as Sub-Saharan Africa and some countries of Asia (Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform, 2018). Therefore, Poverty is one of the major challenges in the world, thus it has been considered as a first sustainable development goal of UN. We know that poverty is a root level cause of every problem.

In this report, the first sustainability development goal has been discussed. The effort of the United Nations also discussed and how they are trying to eradicate Poverty form the world with the help of various poverty eradication programs. In the fourth part of the report, the analysis has been done over various stakeholders of UN in regards to the achievement of first goals of SDG. In the fifth part of the report, it has been discussed that how PRME principles help in poverty eradication. In the end, two recommendations are suggested in consideration with PRME principles to eradicate poverty from the world.

Poverty reduction is the most primary goal of UN in Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Although, according to UN progress report of goal one, which is ‘No Poverty’ an estimated 767 million people lived below the international poverty line of $1.90 a day, which indicates a decline because the number of people who lived below the poverty line in 1999 was 1.7 billion (Colglazier, 2015). The percentage of people who lived below the poverty line in the world in 1999 was 28% of the total world population and it decreased to 11% in 2003. A huge decline in the poverty level has been seen in the South-Eastern Asian countries. In South-Eastern Asian countries, the rate of poverty of the total population was 35% in 1999, but it was declined to 3% in 2013 (Kumar, et.al, 2018). Therefore, Poverty is one of the major problems of the world, thus it was the first priority goal towards a sustainable development plan.  

UN is known for settlement of various problems in the world. UN also claims itself about its many achievements over the last 70 years. UN is known for making various laws such as protect the rights of human beings by upholding human rights, environmental protection rules and regulations, promoting the rule of law, establish a mechanism for international disputes, and removing dangerous diseases and working for bettering the living conditions of millions of people around the world. However, there are many problems that still create problems and UN has not managed it to resolve such as Poverty and hunger all around the world (Shepherd, et.al, 2015). The UN system plays an important role in reducing poverty and focuses on its outcome and advancing the sustainable developments goals.

Comparing and analyzing the role of stakeholders and corporate managers’ moral obligations in business decision making

The UN system work on a governance structure that includes several specialized agencies. It was founded in 1945 after the Second World War to promote friendly relations among nations. There are many funds and programs operated by UN to support sustainability programs such as ITC, UNICEF, UNDP, and UNCTAD etc. There are some specialised agencies, which are the legally independent body, and they are working with their own rules and regulations (Collins, 2012). The UN focuses on regulation and monitoring all the issues with a specialised body and thus they can better fight with the global issues. There are many agencies working under UN to remove the poverty from the world and make the life prosperous of every human being.

Participation in the chief-Executive Boards includes the executive heads of the UN, its 12 funds and programs, 15 specialised agencies, and three related organisations. Under the Chairmanship of the UN Secretary-General, the executive heads meet twice a year to consider policy and management issues.

The UN has various executive and non-executive directors with the role of monitoring and guiding a specialised program, which is operated under them. Mr Juwang Zhuis is currently working as a Director of the Division of sustainable development goals/DESA (Costanza, et.al, 2016). Although the UN has five principal organs and all have an executive director/secretary.  

Every agency has subcommittees and these sub-committees have their own role regarding the governance system. The various sub-committees can be regulated and monitor by top level. These sub organisations are such as WTO, IAEA, and IOM that are the related or sub organisations of UN and they also work for maintaining prosperity and sustainability in the world (Sumner and Tiwari, 2010).

Stakeholder salience is a very useful tool of stakeholder theory. It helps in analysing the behaviour of stakeholders with providing an analysis that who and what counts. This shows that how different stakeholders of UN affect the SDG goals no. 1 ‘no Poverty’ of UN. Partnerships for sustainable development are multi-stakeholder initiatives voluntarily undertaken by Governments, major groups, intergovernmental organizations, and others stakeholders, which efforts are contributing to the implementation of inter-governmentally agreed development goals and commitments (Griggs, et.al, 2014). The major stakeholders of the UN poverty program are as follows:

• Farmers
• Children and youth
• Scientific and Technological Community
• Local Authorities
• Governments of underdeveloped countries
• NGO’s
• Indigenous Peoples
• Workers and Trade Unions
• Farmers
• Women

These are the stakeholders of UN that affect the SDG goal ‘No poverty’. Even the role of these stakeholders is so important in other programs of the United Nations (Griggs, et.al, 2013). These groups and stakeholders show a high level of engagement with intergovernmental processes at United Nations. Even though the other stakeholders such as migrants’ families, older age person, local communities etc. also play an important role in removing poverty from the world (Woodward, 2015).

Applying regulatory requirements to develop appropriate board and committee functions and structures

Fig. Mitchell’s Salience Model

Source: (Mitchell, Agle, and Wood, 1997)

Green	Latent Stakeholders: Low salience, single attribute. UN may not control and cannot do anything about these stakeholders, and may not even recognise them as stakeholders.
Amber	Expectant Stakeholders: Two Attributes, moderate salience. They have active involvement in the goals achievement. UN can always expect something from them because of their high involvement in the project.
Red	Definite Stakeholders: High salience and all the three attributes. The main focus of UN on these Stakeholders because of their high priority level.

Fig. Mitchell’s Salience Model

Source: (Mitchell, Agle, and Wood, 1997)

In the map, there are seven types of stakeholder that can positively or negatively affect the goal of UN to remove poverty from the world. Description of each stakeholder and the relationship with the goal 

1. Dormant Stakeholders:Normally, people or organisation has low legitimacy and low urgency but they have high power to influence the set goal or target. Normally, those countries having too much wealth and power can easily influence the decision of UN, such as the USA and other developed countries where poverty is not a primary problem. 
2. Discretionary Stakeholders: These stakeholders have high legitimacy, but low power and low urgency. In this category, various worldwide NGOs are legitimate stakeholders, but they do not have power or urgency to control the poverty level or do anything on behalf of UN.
3. Demanding Stakeholders: These type of stakeholders are living with high urgency but they have low legitimacy and low power.Those countries, which are suffering from poor financial conditions such as some under-developed Asian and European countries, are great examples of demanding stakeholders. These poor countries are continuously suffering from poor economic conditions, thus they have demanded the facilities, fund, and other resources to remove poverty from the country (Mitchell, et.al, 2011).
4. Dominant stakeholders: These stakeholders have high legitimacy and high power but low urgency. Some Asian countries such as China and India are two countries that fall in these categories. Both China and India are big economies of Asia, but they have very low per capita income, but they do not have the high urgency of removing poverty because the economy is running well in both the countries (Lu, et.al, 2015).  
5. Dangerous stakeholders:These stakeholders have high power and high urgency, but low legitimacy, and that is why these types of stakeholders called dangerous stakeholders. Some poor African countries are the good examples of such stakeholders because they need high urgency of assistance to remove their poverty and they have power as well, but they do not have any way of fighting with such problems.  
6. Dependent stakeholders: These stakeholders are known for high legitimacy with high urgency, but they have very low power. These are those poor people such as farmers, or poor countries that can be directed or monitor easily. However, it is very tough to remove the poverty from that place where the country is struggling with low power.
7. Definite Stakeholders: These stakeholders required the most attention and they have all the three attributes. In this category of stakeholders, some of the African countries and poor farmers are considered. However, these countries having more necessity of facilities and UN those programs, which will help in removing the poverty from the country.

The Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) is an initiative program of the United Nations, which was founded in 2007 to provide education in schools about sustainability and its importance in modern human life. The main agenda of the PRME program is to enhance the knowledge of business students and people that how sustainability change our tomorrow (Sroufe, et.al, 2015). PRME working through six principles with the objective of creating future leaders and improve their skills thus they can balance the economic and sustainability goals and focusing on attaining the SDGs. The six principles of PRME are as follow:

The purpose of the PRME program is to develop the skills and capabilities of the students fight with poverty by those skills, which they learn in PRME program. Purpose serves as a vision of a student tat how they can achieve sustainability by improving the economic conditions of people. Purpose helps in growing awareness about poverty in schools and colleges (Stuart and Woodroffe, 2016). This helps the student to find out other alternatives to contribute to poverty eradication.

The importance of studying poverty issues still is unaware to the students, if they did not understand the value of poverty reductions. Some colleges and schools are finding new courses and ways to spread awareness among students (Waddock, et.al, 2010). It is important for every business schools to specify the values of the courses, which will help in removing poverty and how it can be beneficial for the student.

The solution of the problems in this area is so interesting and encouraging students. If students are well aware of the various solutions of poverty issues, they can be a great initiator in order to remove poverty from the community. Schools may ask the students to prepare presentations and practical solutions of problems because it explores the students thought process and they think how they can eliminate poverty from their society (Waage, et.al, 2015). There are various opportunities also involved in this area such as creating a feasible and unique solution of the problem, and it also helps in the development of both student and faculty to fight with poverty.

Analyzing and explaining economic, social and environmental sustainability to design and apply to business practice

This principle of PRME provides both a challenge and an opportunity for the student. The research understanding and topic legitimacy help in impeded research and alternative solutions of the problem. The government of every country should focus on the research part, thus they can explore new ways to remove poverty from the country. However, the lack of funding, lack of confidence in students and faculties affect the management research process.

Partnership with various stakeholders, local and global NGOs, social entrepreneurs, and local communities can help in many challenges that arise because of poverty. Partnership helps in understanding the real-life problems and experiences and business practices outside of the classroom in a practical way. The partnership also helps in influencing the strategic decisions of the stakeholders and helps in removing poverty-related issues (Nilsson, Griggs, and Visbeck, 2016). Although, a partnership with various firms, NGOs, and other countries’ organisations, which are fighting with poverty, give immense practical experience about the challenges related to poverty reductions.

Challenges, solutions, and opportunities available in this area need more coordination and a strong relationship among all stakeholders (Young and Nagpal, 2013). The role of social class and interest groups also an important factor in fighting against poverty and save the life of people from hunger. The dialogue among the various groups and the relationship among these groups could play a crucial role in both fightings against poverty and achieving the first sustainable development goal.

Eradication of poverty is the primary objective and first goal of UN. To remove poverty from the world it is essential to fight against poverty with a solid plan and strategy because most of the countries fighting with such problems. With the help of PRME principles government can focus on various school and colleges to educate our young generation that how they can fight with poverty and how they can protect people from hunger, diseases, and several other problems, which is arising only because of poverty. Poverty is a root level cause of every problem. If UN should consider the following two points to remove poverty from the globe:

1. Partnership with other private corporations such as Private companies, NGO’s (both domestic and international), and school and colleges can help in fighting against poverty and these organisations should work together and fight against the poverty. Thus, it is essential for UN to bring together to all its stakeholders, private companies, and school colleges and encourage them to do something against poverty. If people want to eradicate poverty form the world, they should work together and fight with it.
2. The main aim of PRME was to achieve the sustainable development goals through spreading knowledge and education. The fourth PRME principle focuses on research. The Corporations and other organisations should focus on innovation and creativity in terms of teaching about poverty and the duties and accountabilities of leadership in management education (Thijssens, Bollen, and Hassink, 2015). The UN nations should encourage other corporations or companies to promote CSR activities in their society and they should spend some part of their income to the economic development of people.

Conclusion

Poverty is one of the major challenges in the world, thus it has been considered as a first sustainable development goal of UN. We know that poverty is a root level cause of every problem. If we want to eradicate poverty from our society, we must fight together. Although, it has been decreasing from last 10 years, but still it is one of the major causes of all problems. Poverty is the only cause behind several diseases such as TB, malaria, and malnutrition. It is also causing a tremendous increase in the world population. Thus, it is essential for UN to bring all their stakeholders together and support them to fight against poverty with unity.

Professional communication of corporate governance practice and frameworks

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