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). 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