The United Nations Global Compact is an initiative to encourage businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on them. Under the Compact, companies are brought together with UN agencies, labour groups and civil society.

The Global Compact was first announced by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in an address to The World Economic Forum on January 31, 1999, and was officially launched at UN Headquarters in New York on July 26, 2000. As of 2006, it includes more than 2,500 companies from all regions of the world, as well as [a smaller number of] international labour and civil society organizations.

On June 24, 2004, during the Global Compact Leaders Summit, the Secretary-General announced the addition of a tenth principle against corruption. This step followed an extensive consultation process with all Global Compact participants.

The Global Compact Office is supported by six UN agencies: the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; the United Nations Environment Programme; the International Labour Organization; the United Nations Development Programme; the United Nations Industrial Development Organization; and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.