Global Competence: Social Responsiblities across Business
Studies
Thanh Thao Nguyen
Department of
Hanken School of Economics
Helsinki
2021
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1
2
3
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 3
1.1
Definition ......................................................................................................................... 3
1.2
Targets .............................................................................................................................. 3
1.3
Real-world social responsibility challenges ..................................................................... 3
APPROACHES FROM DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES ........................................................... 4
2.1
Governance and Commercial Law ................................................................................... 4
2.2
Economics ........................................................................................................................ 5
2.3
Politics and Business ........................................................................................................ 5
CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................... 6
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................... 7
1
1.1
INTRODUCTION
Definition
In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly set up the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) - the collection includes seventeenth global goals. They are connected to each
other as well as are designed to gain a future that is better and sustainable for all people
in the world by the year 2030. In this research paper, the 16th Sustainable Development
Goal or SDG16 was selected as the main goal to analyse further. According to the United
Nations Sustainable Development Platform, Goal 16 is all about “Peace, Justice and
Strong Institutions” and can be defined as “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for
sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable
and inclusive institutions at all levels”.
1.2
Targets
The United Unions has defined targets and indicators for each goal and so does Goal 16
that contains 12 targets and 23 indicators. The goal is defined more specific through
targets and indicators help to measure as well as to track if the target requirements are
fulfilled in a quantitative way. The first three targets (all forms of violence should be
reduced; children are protected from abuse, exploitation, trafficking and violence; the
rule of law should be promoted and equal access to justice is guaranteed) will be discussed
closely along with other targets regarding the topic.
1.3
Real-world social responsibility challenges
Regarding the topic, the challenge to conduct public policy decision making in practice;
the implementation and practicality of armed weapons are real-world social
responsibilities challenges that SDG16 should take into consideration to ensure the
possibility to achieve the goal in 2030. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic increases
the risk of society´s vices concerning children such as abusing, trafficking and criminal
exploitation, which might have negative impact and make it harder to overcome the
obstacles to successfully accomplish the goal. In the next part, various approaches from
Governance and Commercial Law, Economics, Politics and Business disciplines were
proposed to deal with given real-word social responsibility challenges and conflicts.
2
2.1
APPROACHES FROM DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES
Governance and Commercial Law
To achieve the target of promoting the rule of law and ensuring equal access to justice as
well as to deal with the challenge in conducting public policy decision making in practice,
it is best to slowly approach the indicator´s selection process for the targets of SDG16
from one stage to the next. When using indicators as tools, if good indicators get over their
inherent limitations, there would not be enough policymaking worldwide. The most
important thing is that law and policy should be tailored according to the particular needs
and circumstances, so the rule and policy should be practical and avoiding excessive
conditions. For instance, firstly, it is difficult to make competition and consumer law
really work in developing countries for many reasons (industry-specific and delegated
legislations or regulatory practices create entry barriers that cause widespread and
difficult-to-resolve problems for frontline competition in consumer law, big businesses
might exploit small businesses through the gap of competition law), this would make it
hard for reforming the policy in global scale. Through the reform of policy in competition
and consumer law, there are improvements in economic and social welfare, therefore, the
SDG goal is achieved. When a company pay attention to fair and responsible business
practice along with to follow rules, this reduces the illegal actions like exploiting
underaged or child labour, trafficking or other criminal activities. Secondly, although
violence against children leads to severe consequences in the future society, it is still
classified as “the most invisible and pervasive form of violence worldwide”. There are
many reasons for this situation like “poor quality of governance, rule of law is missing,
fundamental freedoms receive no respect. In the road of the SDG16 implementation and
reducing all forms of violence, it is suggested that given elements (self- determination,
early action and conflict prevention, gender responsiveness, diversity, “applied rule of
law”- accountability and integration, comprehensive/integrated approach) should be
focused. Respecting the rule of law and accessing to justice services effectively would
contribute to the social growth, citizen well-being and poverty eradication, equal public
administration, increasing business operations and national effectiveness. (Walker,
Pekmezovic & Walker 2019; Botero, Pinzon-Rondon & Pratt 2016; Werther-Pietsch 2018;
European Parliament Think Tank 2020).
2.2
Economics
In the previous part, an approach related to Governance and Commercial law is discussed
to tackle the SDG16. When it comes to Economics aspect, it is crucial to look at reforming
the tax system and to have a thorough approach that is based on enough evidence as well
as reliable information sources, when a country would like to achieve the Sustainable
Development Goal 16 seriously. In Goal 16, one of the main aims is “to build effective,
accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels” and the institutions including the tax
administration and the courts should been taken into consideration as a key focus in this
goal. The major problems in corruption and the decrease in collecting taxes might lead to
low economic development. To have a better tax system and achieve the SDG faster, the
government should ensure that the tax system have goals such as corruption reduction,
more efficient reporting systems, tax measures, widely structured tax measures, tax
categories are well-designed and transparency. Through transparency and taking small
steps over time make it possible to greatly improve the tax systems and help with the SDG
contribution. (Walker, Pekmezovic & Walker 2019).
2.3
Politics and Business
To begin with the topic, the shape of the Sustainable Development Goal is formed through
specific knowledge and the politics. The SDG16 cover topics like inequality, access to
justice, education, and environment; so, the selection of SDG indicators is not only a
technical matter but also a political one concerning an objective and technical choice. As
two of the political strategies are known as control access to information and select the
decision criteria, Fukuda‐Parr & McNeill mentioned control of data in the article that it is
“a powerful mechanism to shape the strategies of a multitude stakeholders, from national
governments to development agencies to NGOs”. For example, in the context of the
COVID-19 pandemic, access to reliable sources of information is played as a vital role in
introducing emergency measures. When establishing laws and regulations that help to
control the spread of the pandemic, the government and law enforcement authorities
should also consider the aspect of politics and business, since the institutions’ trust might
change based on how the government respond and perform during the pandemic.
(Fukuda‐Parr & McNeill 2019; United Nations Environment Programme 2021).
3
CONCLUSION
The United Nations recommends the ways to promote achievement of SDG16 are
“respect, protect and fulfil all human rights for all; ensure access to information and
freedom of expression; act to protect and support the work of environmental human
rights activists; provide technical support and training; combat corruption in COVID-19
pandemic period; ensure emergency measures – accountable and transparent …”. In
general, the achievement of SDG16 by the year 2030 might face various challenges and
problems (conflicts that are continuing to occur from time to time, societal violence at
widespread level, restrictions to work on human rights positively and so on), which will
slow down or even reverse the achievement progress. So, it is vital to find the right aspects
to approach the targets and tackle problems. The targets can be accessed by using
approaches from different disciplines in Governance and Commercial Law, Economics,
Politics and Business. (United Nations Environment Programme 2021; European
Parliament Think Tank 2020).
REFERENCES
Botero, J. C., Pinzon-Rondon, A. M. & Pratt, C. S. (2016). How, when and why do governance,
justice and rule of law indicators fail public policy decision making in practice? Hague journal
on the rule of law: HJRL, 8(1), 51-74. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40803-015-0020-8
European Parliament Think Tank (2020). Peace, justice and strong institutions: EU support for
implementing SDG 16 worldwide. Available from:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_BRI(2020)64
6156. Accessed 15.09.2021.
Fukuda‐Parr, S. & McNeill, D. (2019). Knowledge and Politics in Setting and Measuring the
SDGs: Introduction to Special Issue. Global policy, 10(S1), 5-15. https://doi.org/10.1111/17585899.12604
United Nations Environment Programme (2021). Human rights and the environment rule of
law factsheet. Available from https://www.unep.org/resources/factsheet/human-rights-andenvironmental-rule-law. Accessed 15.09.2021.
United Nations. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Sustainable Development Goal
Platform - Goal 16. Available from https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal16. Accessed 15.09.2021.
Walker, J., Pekmezovic, A. & Walker, G. r. (2019). Sustainable development goals: Harnessing
business to achieve the SDGs through finance, technology and law reform. Wiley.
Werther-Pietsch, U. (2018). The impact of SDGs on international law - A nucleus of a right to
peace? Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft, 47(1), 17-28.
https://doi.org/10.15203/ozp.1895.vol47iss1
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Nations Can Assist in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Ecological economics, 135,
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