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Community Building Meeting II |
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Community Building Meeting II |
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Discussion with Oded Grajew Representatives of the Secretariat met Oded at his downtown Sao Paolo office, the Brazil headquarters of Ethos Institute. They explored the variety of reform-based business initiatives that Oded has established over the years. The work of the Commission on Globalization was clearly identified as being consistent with Oded's philosophy and pursuits. Given his significant commitments to these pursuits and his desire to spend more time with his family in the coming years, he agreed to examine closely the planned activities of the Commission. His involvement would depend upon identifying projects that would not intrude upon his existing commitments and would be additive to his efforts within Brazil. The discussion ended with an agreement to continue exploring an appropriate degree of engagement. Oded Grajew Oded Grajew is President of the Ethos Institute. He is one of Brazil's most highly respected entrepreneurs who has, for over two decades, utilized his connections in the business community to combat inequities in the Brazilian political and social sectors, oppose and reform child labor practices, and build a national organization of corporations dedicated to socially responsible business practices. In 1972, Oded and four friends started the country's first educational toy company, called GROW, which, by the end of the 1980's, had become one of the largest toy companies in Brazil. As the president of the Brazilian Toy Manufacturers Association, he used the association's influence in support of the growing movement advocating human rights and opposing the military regime in the 1980's. In 1987, he founded an association of progressive business leaders to broaden the democratic opposition and strengthen the reform movement that led to democratic elections in 1989. Three years later, Oded established the ABRINQ Foundation for Children's Rights which works with manufacturers throughout Brazil to ensure their products are child labor free and either operate and/or contribute to projects that benefit children, such as education and training. Building on this corporate involvement in social reform Oded, in 1998, founded the Ethos Institute for Business Social Responsibility, of which he is President. The mission of the Ethos Institute is to encourage Brazilian businesses to be more socially responsible and to educate these businesses about the social impact of their business decisions and practices. Today, this non-profit association has more than 270 corporate members - large, medium and small - from diverse economic sectors and regions of the country. The Ethos Institute is also a founding member of EMPRESA - a network of organizations throughout North and South America, which seeks to promote business social responsibility. After conversations with several colleagues in early 2000, Oded approached his friend, the Mayor of Porto Alegre, about hosting a gathering of organizations in parallel to the World Economic Forum that annually convenes in Davos, Switzerland. This idea blossomed into the World Social Forum that convened, during the last week of January, 2001, over 12,000 people from around the world. |
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