Focus on corporate responsibility

Every self-respecting company nowadays devotes a section of its website to informing the public about how it sees its role and responsibility as part of society and what it is doing to tackle the related challenges. In our case, however, the menu item entitled “Corporate Responsibility” offers something different. In our concrete project work we repeatedly encounter fundamental questions concerning the (co-)responsibility of corporate organizations when it comes to solving poverty-related healthcare problems. Therefore “corporate responsibility” – together with “international health” – has always been the main focus of our work.

The Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development has a long history as an active participant in academic and public debate. Business ethics, sustainability, social responsibility or whatever the key term may be – when it comes to a sustainable global society worth living in, we have gained recognition through a wide range of publications and activities, stimulating the important debate on an appropriate division of responsibilities between the various societal players.

We also provide assistance and advice to Novartis, which applies the term of “corporate citizenship”  in this context. That said, the Foundation's conceptual expertise is equally intended to offer general support to the private sector and the pharmaceutical industry, enabling them to reach an enlightened point of view on key social issues. As a result, in addition to the pharma-specific “right to health” issue, particular importance is currently attached to the increasingly intensive debate surrounding “business & human rights” and the further development of the UN Global Compact.