The Norwegian experience By Tarjei Leer-Salvesen NorWatch, The Future in Our Hands common strategy for corporations to avoid binding rules, which would tie them to certain social and environmental performance requirements, is to develop their own voluntary codes of conduct.
Norwegian companies are no exception when it comes to adopting such a strategy.
However, there is a mounting body of evidence which suggests that such codes are ineffective. The main reason being that voluntary codes lack credible monitoring and sanctioning mechanisms which would hold companies to their commitments. In an effort to address this problem, a group of Norwegian NGOs have presented the government with a proposal aimed at holding Norwegian corporations truly accountable and prevent them from applying double standards when operating abroad. This Ombudsman would be entitled to control the 'positive incentives' given by the government to companies in a way that would influence their adherence to social and environmental standards abroad. After five years of research on the activities of Norwegian companies in Asia, Africa and Latin-America, it is clear that they are no different than other multinational companies based in Europe and North America.