Vienna (Austria) - 26 July 2023 – Today, youth represent a significant portion of the population. As young people embark on their professional journeys, it is essential to equip university graduates with ethical mindsets at the start of their careers and empower them to become a driving force for ethical business. Involving youth as critical agents of change is at the heart of UNODC’s efforts to foster a new generation of ethical decision-makers.
One example of such efforts is the “Global Integrity Education” project, launched in 2019 in Kenya, Mexico and Pakistan. Over the past four years, the project created a talent supply chain of more than 35,000 graduates and young professionals who are now empowered to serve as “Ethics Ambassadors” in their workplaces to promote ethical business. To achieve this, UNODC brought together university lecturers and business representatives in the three countries to localize 16 of the UNODC University Integrity, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Modules and integrate them into the curriculum. To date, these modules have been taught by more than 300 lecturers across universities in Kenya, Mexico and Pakistan. More than 110 guest lectures from the business sector were delivered, combining real-world scenarios and theory.
As a culmination of this collective action among the academia and the private sector that started four years ago, 36 students, university lecturers and business representatives from Kenya, Mexico and Pakistan met virtually today to launch the Global Ethics Ambassadors Network, a global platform where the Ethics Ambassadors can share experiences in using the skills gained from the UNODC Modules in their workplaces. The Network aims to provide young leaders with opportunities to discuss challenges faced in overcoming ethical dilemmas in their daily work, as well as to identify common needs and concrete actions that can be implemented in companies to overcome these challenges.
When asked about the usefulness of the UNODC Modules, the participating Ethics Ambassadors agreed on the importance of ethics training at the university level and shared that the UNODC Modules helped them prepare for real-life situations that might arise in their life and work. The Ethics Ambassadors also identified the main priority areas for companies to focus on to promote a culture of integrity in their business operations. Among them, the young leaders underlined the importance of having ethical role models within the companies, engaging in collective action to promote business integrity, establishing safe whistle-blower mechanisms, promoting positive incentives for ethical behavior, ensuring responsible third-party relations and developing self-assessment tests on ethical judgment for company personnel.
The attending business practitioners from Kenya, Mexico and Pakistan welcomed these youth recommendations and agreed on the added value of having Ethics Ambassadors in their companies to provide new visions and act as a driving force for an ethical work environment. They also reaffirmed their interest in continuing the dialogue and exchange between students and private sector representatives started with the Global Integrity Education project as key elements to jointly build trust and promote business integrity in their country’s business landscape.
The priority areas identified by the Ethics Ambassadors during the global meeting will be used to develop youth recommendations for strengthening business integrity, which will serve as a benchmark for companies eager to further strengthen business integrity drawing from the unique perspectives and innovative ideas of young professionals.
In the future, Ethics Ambassadors will also support selected activities of UNODC's Global Resource for Anti-Corruption Education and Youth Empowerment (GRACE) initiative, such as the Arab Coding4Integrity Hackathon 2023 and the development of an upcoming anti-corruption publication for young people willing to start their anti-corruption initiatives.
The UNODC Global Integrity Education project is funded by the Siemens Integrity Initiative.
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