UN Global Compact Unveils 2026–2030 Strategy to Turn Corporate Ambition into Action

New five-year plan equips companies, catalyzes collective action, and sharpens the case for responsible business leadership - powered by an updated Communication on Progress and a strengthened regional network.

The United Nations Global Compact today announced its 2026-2030 Strategy, a five-year plan to help companies translate sustainability ambition into measurable results and systems-level change amid intensifying climate, social and geopolitical pressures. Grounded in the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact, and aligned with the United Nations 2030 Agenda, the strategy responds to a world reshaped by climate disruption, widening inequality, geopolitical instability and a crisis of trust - challenges no sector can solve alone.

At the core of the strategy are three focus areas that together move companies from commitment to impact: Equip companies to act; Catalyze collective action; and Advance the business case. Through tailored, digitally enabled support, the UN Global Compact will help companies of every size integrate the Ten Principles across operations; convene business-led coalitions to remove systemic barriers like policy fragmentation and financing gaps; and curate data-driven evidence that links responsible leadership to long-term value creation.

A modernized Communication on Progress (CoP), now a streamlined digital platform, will underpin the strategy with comparable disclosure, peer benchmarking and decision-grade insights. In 2024, nearly 15,000 CoP submissions demonstrated the platform's reach, turning transparency into action and strengthening accountability across markets.

Business participants will be able to access a digitally tailored learning journey, curated tools and guidance, peer communities and accelerator programs, backed by CoP-driven insights, to set science-based and time-bound targets, embed human rights due diligence, steward water, combat corruption and align capital with SDG outcomes. Business-led coalitions will address barriers no single company can solve, while evidence from CoP and research will help leaders make the case for investment and scale.

Collective action will concentrate on four high-impact areas where private-sector leadership is indispensable: climate & nature; decent work & living wage; gender equality and sustainable finance. These coalitions will mobilize CEO-level advocacy, align supplier expectations, advance public-policy solutions, and crowd in capital showcasing how coordinated interventions can shift incentives and deliver cross-market progress.

To demonstrate value and scale what works, the UN Global Compact will advance the business case through structured analysis and real-world data drawn from thousands of companies worldwide, including collaboration with the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) and academic partners. This evidence base will help boards and investors connect sustainability performance to resilience, innovation and growth.

Commenting on the new strategy, Sanda Ojiambo, CEO and Executive Director of the UN Global Compact said "This strategy is about delivery and real-world outcomes equipping companies from SMEs to multinationals, to turn principle-based commitments into measurable progress and market-moving coalitions at local, regional and global levels. At a time of geopolitical fragmentation and economic uncertainty, our role is to bridge the worlds of policy and business with practical tools, credible accountability and partnerships that scale solutions. Responsible business is not a side project - it's core to long-term value creation and a more stable, investable global economy."

The strategy builds on the Compact's expanding global footprint as it now has over 23,000 companies across over 160 countries through an enhanced network of five Regional Hubs and active Country Networks that localize programming and align corporate action with national priorities.