Mail & Guardian reporter
The Business Coordinating Forum (BCF) for World Summit 2002, chaired by politician-turned-businessman Tokyo Sexwale, comprises representatives of all the major business organisations in South Africa.
The forum is coordinating and promoting business initiatives in the preparations for the summit.
According to the BCF business plan, which is to be a public document, South Africa’s approach to the summit is firmly rooted in the African renaissance vision and is underpinned by analysis set out in the Millennium African Recovery Programme (MAP) which local business and industry endorse.
MAP is a pledge by Africa’s leaders to eradicate poverty and reposition the continent on the path to sustainable growth and development.
At its core, as BCF sees it, the African renaissance provides an economic and social framework for African regeneration based on the pillars of governance, security, stability, economic and social development, and cooperation in the region.
“MAP takes this vision forward into a programme of action for the economic and social revival of Africa, based on a constructive partnership between Africa and the North,” says Lauraine Lotter, coauthor of the forum’s business plan.
“Many changes have taken place over the past 10 years. The result is a noticeable transformation in governance, technology, awareness, policy and investment, all supported by businesses that have embraced the global trend towards environmental/social responsibility and accountability.”
Tom Main, past CEO of the Chamber of Mines who now chairs the BCF’s working group, believes South African business is already contributing to sustainable development. However, many business initiatives and plans or activities are not “packaged” under this banner, so the contributions are often hard to quantify or are not reported.
World Summit 2002 is an opportun-ity to showcase business’s already active commitment to the sustainable development agenda, he says.