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Filed under: Bangladesh Poverty Community Investment — Michelle Brown @ 09:32 am |
The adidas-Group works to tackle difficult issues in its supply chain and also invests in the communities in which it operates. The company's products are traditionally for the high end consumer market. How can multinationals think ‘outside the shoebox’ and about what else they can be doing to tackle some of the regions serious challenges? By leveraging their core strengths and coming up with viable business models that bring social benefits. More here...As noted here Bangladesh’s Nobel Laureate and the adidas-Group have signed a memorandum of understanding to form the Grameen-Adidas company to make sure that no one, child or adult, goes without shoes. Yunnus helped revolutionalise microfinance and show that banking for the poor is possible. He continues to challenge multinational companies to help create jobs and businesses that address poverty. Companies such as Groupe Danone and Veolia have launched social business ventures with Grameen to serve the poor with nutrition and safe drinking water. While early base of the pyramid business (bop) models by MNCs were criticised for seeing the poor only as consumers, joint venture business models to form social enterprises have helped to ensure that there are shared benefits – for the business and for people living in poverty. Of course there will always be critics (see this blog for example) but only by beginning to think out of our boxes can companies start to address long term development issues. Yunnus is quoted here explaining that this is a “health intervention to make sure that people in the rural areas, particularly children, do not have to suffer from parasitic diseases that can be transmitted through walking barefoot”. The company was quoted here some months ago and saying that key decisions on design, branding and price still needed to be finalised. |
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Treating expenditure relating to CSR as investments will help to keep the concept on the Boardroom table in the current economic downturn. More then ever, companies can make a difference to those communities worst hit by the economic crisis and it is important that they move away from traditional forms of philanthropy and towards community investment strategies. Such strategies linked to issues around the Millennium Development Goals (and others) can have a huge benefit for businesses in terms of establishing trust, building brands and enhancing reputation. These are the main messages in an article printed this weekend in the Manila based Business Mirror. In that article, I also talk about the role of the private sector in tackling climate change. Next week we have our first Manila Forum event on community investment strategies. Later in the year we will have a second event on the role of the private sector in tackling Climate Change. |
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CSR will vary from sector to sector and a recent article in the Phillipines press lays out the challenges for key industries in the country. My colleague Michelle Brown is quoted at length. For example, for companies working in agriculture, she says, engaging with core stakeholders, including rural communities, and managing supplier relationships are of critical importance for business. Many companies struggle to identify appropriate ways to engage with communities and other stakeholders, to understand their impact and to communicate practices and results, she notes. Meaningful programs in rural areas where a company operates can also be instrumental in developing trust-based partnerships that will contribute to the success of a business. To illustrate, it makes sense for a firm based in farm areas to have programs targeting the farmers who may not have access to needed agricultural inputs or information, which could make their livelihood easier. Mining companies, on the other hand, face numerous environmental and social risks in going about their work in communities. To tackle these challenges, understanding stakeholder expectations, fostering constructive working relationships and building capacity in the communities need to be high on the agenda. Many global mining companies have numerous codes and policies in place but struggle to find ways to implement these and build partnerships at a local level. A good CSR program would help foster partnerships and build trust among stakeholders. Other key sectors in the Philippines are also covered in the article which you can read here. You can see more details of our Manila Forum event here. |
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Filed under: Philippines Community Investment — Richard Welford @ 17:36 pm |
Unemployment in the Phiippines now stands at 14 million with some suggesting it is significantly higher than that if one takes into account non-registered unemployment or under-employment in rural areas. The economy has been hit hard by falling commodity prices. Exports have slid 31% because of a slump in the demand for electronics. Foreign direct investment has fallen by a stagering 82% over the last year. Interstingly though, profits of some of the largest companies such as Metro Pacific and Petron are up and huge conglomerates such as San Miguel are still pursuing aggressive acquisition plans. So the role of the private sector in dealing with poverty alleviation through community investment is not only more important than ever, but it seems that some companies, at least, have more than enough resources to make a much needed difference. Being here in Manila at the moment, promoting our upcoming Manila Forum, my conclusion seems to be that companies might be recovering in the Philippines but communities are not. There is often a lag between corporate rebounds and the 'trickledown effect' that can benefit poorer communities. And that is exactly why community investment now is going to have a big impact on societies, but if done strategically will also help to build trust in business that will help with reputation and brand. Strategic community investment now will bring benefits for both communities and for businesses in the future. |
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CSR Asia is quoted widely in the Manila Bulletin today which is running an article on community investment and poverty alleviation in the run up to The Manila Forum. The Philippines seems badly affected by the economic downturn and there is a heightened role for the private sector in protecting the most vulnerable. The article stresses the need for a strategic aproach to CSR. It says that there are three key issues that are important in creating successful community investment projects during the current economic downturn. First, effective stakeholder engagement and the inclusion of community needs assessment and skills development in project planning. Second, there needs to be an emphasis on measuring outputs and impacts of CSR projects to ensure that CSR is delivering real value for money for both communities and businesses. Third, there is a need to properly communicate the projects and their successes. You can find out more about the Manila Forum here. |
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Filed under: Asia Community Investment — Richard Welford @ 13:17 pm |
If you have got time to do volunteering then you are not busy enough at work. That was the view expressed by a manager to a friend of mine who asked if they could organise an employee voluneer team in their organisation. And, the manager went on to say, that if she and her colleagues were not busy enough at work then it was clear that there was room for more staff cuts. Well, where do you start? The manager in question clearly does not recognise the potential benefits (internal and external) of employee volunteering and neither does he seem to understand that there can be a strong business case for supporting communities through volunteering efforts that can enhance corporate reputation and brand. But I do not blame only the manager. The case for employee volunteering is still poorly made in Asia and it must be seen as more than a 'nice thing to do'. We need to promote employee volunteering as a strategic part of a well managed and well measured community investment process and as I said in my blog last week, that has to go beyond simply counting volunteers and counting hours. And for all those people who asked me about how you properly measure the impact of employee volunteering and community investment I would invite you to attend our event in Manila on 28th May. |
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Filed under: Community Investment — Richard Welford @ 08:18 am |
'Investing in Impact' is the name of our new one day training course on examining tools and approaches for community investment. The main message is two-fold. Firstly we place an emphasis on moving away from traditional philanthropy towards more strategic community investment with an emphasis on getting a return on that investment for both businesses and society. Secondly, we emphasise the need to measure impact to make sure that those investments truly make a difference. These messages are particularly important during the current economic downturn when senior managers are looking to ensure that they are getting value for money from their community projects. Yesterday saw the first course. It was a diverse group with some people just starting out on building a community investment strategy and others who had well established programmes but felt that they were inadequately measuring outputs and impacts. One person was looking at ways in which he could develop community investment projects along his supply chain. I thnk that we all agreed however, that the biggest gap in most community investment projects related to this issue of measuing impact. CSR Asia uses the LBG (London Benchmarking Group) approach to measuring impact but we have also deveoped our own community investment scorecard which aims to measure both community benefits and societal benefits of community investment. You can find out more about our course here. |
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Filed under: Health Community Investment — Richard Welford @ 15:34 pm |
It looks like swine flu might not turn into the major global killer that it might have. Over the last few days a number of people have been asking me what I think companies should do. Well, the basic stuff is common sense – remind staff to stay at home if they develop flu-like symptoms, allow staff to work from home where possible and don’t insist on staff travelling overseas if they do not want to. For companies with a direct public interface, there is a need to protect the public through increased hygiene levels and the provision of timely and accurate information. But if and when a pandemic linked to bird flu or swine flu does take hold then it is also important to recognise who is likely to be most affected by such an event. Of course the answer is that those likely to be worst affected are people without easy access to the sorts of public health facilities that many of us too often take for granted. Therefore, poor people, in rural areas in poorer developing countries are the ones most likely to be impacted. What can businesses do?
Well, when one looks back at the private sector involvement in responding to the Sichuan earthquake last year, there are obvious parallels. So if a pandemic does break out how can the private sector help get much needed medical and other resources to communities under threat? Much the same way as they did with the earthquake I would suggest – through financial contributions to pay for drugs, through transportation capacity donated by airlines, through donations of other resources needed by people who become sick (food, water etc.) and through the provisions of preventative resources such as hand soap, face masks and cleaning materials.
But even if the pandemic turns out not to be as serious as we might have feared, why don’t businesses think about extending their business continuity and crisis management systems to engagement with communities at risk? Longer term, the private sector can think now about contributing to building public health capacity and developing localised skills for at risk communities. Disaster prevention measures may not always bring the kudos that other community investment might bring, but they sure could save a lot of lives. |
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Filed under: CSR Community Investment — Richard Welford @ 12:24 pm |
If you are measuring the impact of your employee volunteering activities by counting the hours that staff ‘donate’ to projects, then forget it. The number of hours of employee volunteering is an input measure and does not necessarily relate to the outputs, impacts and the difference to communities that you might make. Unfortunately, most companies fail to accurately measure their community impacts and the evidence is contained in a report that CSR Asia did with the Global Reporting Initiative last year. The problem with most employee volunteering schemes is that many companies get staff together and then work out what they can do with this valuable human resource. This is the wrong approach. The alternative approach is to start from your corporate community investment goals and then look at the staff (and other) resources needed to meet those goals. Measuring impacts then has to be linked to indicators relating to whether the goal was achieved. This makes community investment much more strategic and many companies are missing out on great opportunities if they measure inputs (volunteer hours) rather than impacts. Helping to make community investment more strategic is one of the key roles of the CSR Asia Community Development Foundation and you can get more information here. |
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Filed under: Cambodia Poverty Community Investment — Marie Morice @ 13:13 pm |
Cambodia's sky-high microlending growth will continue at double-digit rates in 2009, albeit at a slower pace than previous years, according to the industry. With 18 microfinance institutions at the end of 2008, microfinance has been one of the country's fastest growing sectors, with annual borrower growth of about 20 percent since 2004, reaching over 800,000 borrowers and nearly 400,000 savers in all provinces of Cambodia, according to International Finance Corporation (IFC) figures. Cambodia's microfinance institutions are small relative to commercial banks, accounting for six percent of bank assets and 10 percent of loans at the end of 2007 but critical to Cambodia's rural population and have 76 percent of the country's more than 800,000 borrowers, say World Bank figures. As long as microfinance institutions have the funds to lend, they should expand even more in future. More |
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A new recreation centre for foreign workers opened on Sunday in Jurong West, Singapore. The $5-million centre was built by Scal, the Singapore Contractors Association Limited, the official representative of the construction industry in Singapore. The centre includes a range of facilities from a football field to a medical station and many more. Mr Cedric Foo, local MP, proposed that the local community leaders use the Scal Recreation Centre as a platform to host social activities that allow locals and foreigners to mingle together, to help foreign workers better integrate in Singapore. Foreign workers are an important part of the workforce in Singapore, with an estimated 580,000 lower-skilled workers in 2006. More here and here. |
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Filed under: China Community Investment — Stephen Frost @ 10:24 am |
Wokai, a nonprofit organization that enables people in China to build small businesses and lift themselves from poverty, has announced the launch of a microfinance platform that allows individuals to support rural entrepreneurship initiatives - primarily for women - with donations as small as $10. It's a very interesting model. You can visit the blog run by the two founders, or visit the Wokai website here. |
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Filed under: Hong Kong Companies Community Investment — Stephen Frost @ 09:26 am |
An unlinkable story from today's Hong Kong Standard reports on a local social enterprise that says it won't lay off workers despite projections that business will drop 50%. Sunlight Decoration and Engineering [曙光裝修工程] (a subsidiary of the Society for Community Organization (SoCO) [香港社區組織協會]) boss Zachary Wong Wai-Yin says he 'won't lay off my employees, do shoddy work and use inferior materials'. Wong employs street sleepers and other disadvantaged people. Anybody who's ever renovated a flat in Hong Kong and fought long battles with shoddy contractors should take a long look at Sunlight! |
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As the earth warms tropical cyclones are set to become more intense and strong cyclones, as we’ve seen in South Asia, can cause great loss of life and property. Yesterday was the International Day for Disaster Reduction and SciDev.Net has highlighted the issues facing South Asia by publishing a set of articles to inform policymakers, researchers and international donors about ways of improving cyclone management. This article points to the fact that it is not enough to simply be prepared for a disaster. Countries likely to face future cyclones need a longer-term framework that strengthens local people's capacity to adapt to such events. But currently a large funding gap exists. CSR Asia is currently conducting research into the role of the business sector in climate change adaptation in Southeast Asia and it is remarkable how little the private sector is getting involved in helping local communities better adapt. For further articles see how vulnerability maps can help cut cyclone deaths and a need for an integrated approach to disaster management. Can anyone not see the potential role for private sector here? |
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The world's demand for nuclear power plant energy has meant a sound future for uranium mined in Niger. But as this report points out the international corporations that have won concessions to remove it, including Sino-Uranium - a subsidiary of the state enterprise China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), have been careless of the land and its people. Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world so the government sees the renewed interest in nuclear fuel as an opportunity for economic and social development. But mining concessions are granted to foreign companies with no consultation with indigenous populations who are often evacuated from their own land. Drinking water in certain regions has been found to have radioactivity levels above international standards and radioactive waste is stored out in the open. Scrap iron from plants is often sold in the market and used for construction materials or to make kitchen utensils. The report raises a number of issues for any corporation extracting uranium in a politically unstable environment where a large indigenous population with little education lives on the fringes of the mining economy. |
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The Cebu Chamber of Commerce (CCCI) responded to the Filipino Department of Education's call for aid in the region by launching a plan for "collective, meaningful and sustainable" education through CSR. The CCCI emphasized the development of homegrown talent to further growth in local businesses. To this end, the CCCI hopes to tailor member companies' activities in the program towards each company's specialty. For example, businesses in the construction and furniture sectors could upgrade the schools' facilities, while publishing firms could offer support by providing textbooks. Hopefully, such philanthropy will lead to further, sustained involvement - such as employee volunteering in school - rather than simply providing some support in return for some rather substantial tax incentives. More here. |
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After years of hard work, Phoenix Pulp and Paper Plc (PPPC) is winning the hearts of its neighbours in Khon Kaen, proof that an industrial factory can live happily with the community in which it operates. About 10 villagers have joined the campaign launched by Siam Cement Group (SCG) as researchers to observe PPPC's environmental projects such as the raising of fish in a vast reservoir right behind the factory, and the planting of economic crops using the waste water from the factory. Phoenix's green project bears rich fruits with the community involvement. More here. |
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Filed under: China Community Investment — Jolly Cheng @ 14:00 pm |
A shortage of clean drinking water in Kyrgyzstan has been tackled with multimillion dollar funding in recent years, but critics say the results have at best been mixed. The water projects - known as “Taza Suu, or Clean Water” - started in 2001 and were financed by, among others, the Asian Development Bank (a major funder of one of the projects). However, the ADB-run projects face fierce criticism from local NGOs and villagers who accuse ADB of poor communication with the local communities, and poor monitoring and execution. There are good lessons here for companies or donors who want to do something good in the community; besides giving millions of dollars, they have to think seriously how to communicate with locals before taking any action. More here. |
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The white domed, earthquake proof, houses of New Nglepen in Prambanan, Yogyakarta were built after the 2006 earthquake that shattered lives across much of Central Java. Nglepen was hard hit during the earthquake with most homes lost but a project funded by WANGO and private donors, the community has now been moved to New Nglepen and the domed village is one of Indonesia’s first forays into domed buildings and a great success, according to the villagers. From an environmental perspective they say the double-story houses are a cool retreat from the blistering heat outside using traditional building methods reminiscent of North Africa rather than south east Asia. More here. |
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Filed under: Health Cambodia Education Community Investment — Richard Welford @ 11:23 am |
By the end of the month, the children pictured here will no longer get free breakfast from the U.N. World Food Program. About 450,000 Cambodian students will become the latest victims of soaring global food prices. Five local suppliers have defaulted on contracts to provide rice because they can get a higher price elsewhere, says this report. The school's remaining stocks are expected to run out in the coming days. It is feared that without the food children may stop going to school. A nice project for a business if anyone wants to pick it up? |
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