OMATAPALO ENGENHARIA E CONSTRUÇÃO has joined the United Nations Global Compact, becoming the first Angolan construction company to join this initiative which aims to promote the voluntary adoption of social, corporate and sustainability responsibility policies by companies, with a view to developing a more inclusive and sustainable global market.
The Pact was announced in 1999 by the then secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, at the Davos World Forum, and officially launched in 2000. Today it brings together more than 2,4500 companies from the most diverse sectors, from 167 countries, along with hundreds of NGOs, trade unions, official bodies and UN agencies.
The Global Compact, which in Angola has only 23 member companies, including OMATAPALO ENGENHARIA E CONSTRUÇÃO, aims to accelerate and strengthen the global impact of business on society, leading companies to adopt 10 principles related to human rights, work, the environment and the fight against corruption.
Companies must also work towards fulfilling the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in a spirit of collaboration and innovation, in areas such as poverty reduction, gender equality, climate change and decent work.
By joining the Pact, companies undertake to report annually on their progress in implementing the 10 principles in their business structures, culture and daily operations.
“OMATAPALO’s inclusion in the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate social responsibility initiative, is a source of great pride for us, as it also reinforces our responsibility to help ensure that business has a positive impact on people, communities and societies, along with the environment, issues that have, after all, been in our DNA from day one,” says Pedro Vieira Santos, OMATAPALO’s CEO.
In a note welcoming OMATAPALO’s entry into this network of companies committed to a humane and environmentally responsible globalization, Eliana Pereira dos Santos, Country Manager of the Global Compact in Angola, said it was important to have “courageous and united voices to defend the 10 Principles and the SDGs in order to combat the injustices suffered by so many people. Let’s be the change we want to see in the world and let’s turn the global goals into local business.
