Business, labor and civil society organizations have skills and

The words of Kofi Annan, “Business, labor and civil society organizations have skills and resources that are vital in helping to build a more robust global community,” rise like a clarion call from one who has walked the corridors of nations and seen the destiny of peoples. This is no casual observation, but a truth carved from decades of service as Secretary-General of the United Nations. Annan speaks with the voice of one who knew that governments alone cannot shoulder the weight of the world. To build a robust global community, every hand must take part—the merchants and makers, the workers and builders, the voices of the people bound together in common cause.

The meaning is plain yet profound. Business holds the wealth of innovation, capital, and reach. Labor holds the strength, skill, and sacrifice that turn ideas into reality. Civil society holds the conscience, the compassion, and the collective memory of justice. When separated, they are but fragments, each striving in isolation. But when joined together, they become the great tripod upon which the house of humanity stands firm. Without balance among the three, the structure wavers. But with harmony, the community endures storms and thrives in peace.

History gives us luminous examples. Consider the Marshall Plan after the Second World War. Governments provided vision and structure, but it was the alliance of business, rebuilding industries; labor, toiling with renewed vigor; and civil society, ensuring fairness and dignity, that transformed a continent of ashes into a garden of prosperity. Had any one pillar been absent, Europe might have remained broken, vulnerable to tyranny. Yet united, they built not only recovery, but a lasting peace that reshaped the modern world. Annan’s words remind us that such unity is not accident but necessity.

And what of the darker side, when this harmony is absent? The Industrial Revolution brought both progress and pain. Business, unchecked, sought profit at the cost of human dignity. Labor, chained to machines, cried out in blood and sweat. Civil society, slow to awaken, eventually rose through reformers, unions, and voices of conscience. Only when all three began to speak in balance did the worker gain rights, the markets gain stability, and society gain justice. This too is Annan’s teaching: without the weaving together of resources, strength, and conscience, a community may grow rich, but it cannot grow robust.

The emotional force of this truth is timeless. Humanity is a body with many parts. The mind of enterprise, the hands of labor, and the heart of society must work together if the body is to flourish. If one part suffers, all suffer; if one part grows proud and deaf to the others, all stumble. Annan’s wisdom reminds us that to face global challenges—poverty, war, climate change, inequality—we must act not as fractured entities, but as one body, drawing upon every gift of skill, resource, and spirit.

What lesson, then, should each reader carry? It is this: you, too, are part of this great union. Whether you dwell in the halls of commerce, the fields of work, or the movements of community, your role is not small. Seek not only your own gain, but ask how your strength may serve the global community. If you lead a business, let it be a servant of humanity, not merely of profit. If you labor with your hands, know that your work sustains the world. If you raise your voice in society, let it be for justice, truth, and compassion.

Practical action begins where you stand. Support enterprises that honor both people and planet. Stand with workers who seek dignity and fair wages. Join or uplift civil society organizations that protect the vulnerable and give voice to the voiceless. In these ways, you embody Annan’s vision, weaving your thread into the fabric of a stronger and more enduring community.

So let these words be remembered not as counsel for the mighty alone, but as guidance for all. For the robust global community Annan envisioned is not the dream of one man, but the shared destiny of all humankind. And it will be built not in distant halls of power alone, but in the daily choices of every soul who dares to see themselves as part of the great whole.