By CSRwire Contributing Writer Elaine Cohen

The UN Global Compact has grown from strength to strength during the past 10 years since its founding by the legendary Kofi Annan. There are some who say it’s a weak and ineffective organization. Others say differently.

In 2010, the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) celebrates 10 years of activity with the publication of a mammoth International Yearbook with 191 pages, listing milestones, achievements, global issues of the time and best practices of 45 UNGC business participants, who also pay for its production. The Yearbook opens with an array of congratulatory messages from the global ‘who’s who’ of political and NGO leaders, all of whom concur the Global Compact has played a crucial role in advancing responsible business practices. In 2000, when a handful of companies and NGOs got together at the invitation of Kofi Annan, corporate social responsibility (CSR) “was a fairly disentangled phenomenon,” writes Prof. Andreas Rasche in the Yearbook. “Through its 10 universal principles, the Global Compact structured the debate without being overly regulative and thereby destroying the possibility for innovation.” The 10 principles act as a “moral compass,” especially for SMEs, which “play a pivotal role when thinking about how to implement corporate responsibility practices in the local context.”