CSR in Africa
Elevating the human factor
By Rosalind McLymont, April 2016
In Africa, the acronym CSR can refer to “corporate social responsibility,” where companies simply engage in philanthropic activities in the communities where they operate, such as building a school, health clinic, or a “green” facility, without concern for their bottom line. It also can refer to “corporate sustainability and responsibility,” where companies engineer their internal governance to assure their sustainability or survival. They identify the social, economic and environmental ideals of their host communities and incorporating those ideals into their business operations.
The difference in these definitions of CSR lies in the human element — the extent to which CSR allows individuals in the community to achieve a sustainable livelihood. In the United States, there is growing concern that corporations are diluting their already slim diversity budgets and shifting dollars to such activities as greening their operations, investing in clean-energy projects, and responsible regulatory compliance, in the name of corporate social responsibility. The shift gives them a pass on increasing the presence of under-represented minorities in their workplace and supply chains, the argument goes.
Companies must take into account the critical needs and interests of all stakeholders rather than those of the shareholders only, if they hope to continue making profit. As a matter of fact, great companies and multinational enterprises are now appointing executives such as Corporate Stakeholder Relationship Officer, whose sole job is to find out what the least expectations of stakeholders are and to inform management accordingly so that the shareholders can have a more informed basis for developing a strategy,” King said in his keynote address at the 2015 conference
Cameroonian pan-Africanist Mamadou Toure, chairman and CEO of Ubuntu Capital investment advisors and founder of Africa 2.0 Foundation, is a renowned advocate of the first reference, but he adds a solid business-case twist. More than simply building schools and clinics, corporations should link their CSR programs to their core businesses, thereby creating a social and financial return. “While I was working as managing director for sales and project finance for GE Africa, my team designed and set up a supply chain investment vehicle dedicated to supporting our suppliers with the necessary capital, enabling them to produce spare parts according to global standards. This helped local companies skill up and participate,” Toure explains in an August 2015 article for The Africa Report. “The significant job creation impact and business growth became obvious for our stakeholders, including communities, suppliers and customers.”
From Nov. 9 to 11 this year, industry executives and policymakers will gather in Accra, Ghana, for the annual edition of the CEO roundtable and conference on corporate sustainability and responsibility. Convened by Nigerian management consultants ThistlePraxis Consulting Ltd., the theme this year is, “Building Inclusive and Sustainable Organizations in Africa.” The keynote speaker will be Mervyn King Ph.D., a former a former judge for the Supreme Court of South Africa who now chairs his own King Committee on Corporate Governance and teaches corporate citizenship at the University of South Africa. King, also a former chair of the UN Committee on Governance & Oversight, argues that the global threat of the economic climate, increasing competition, diminishing natural resources, technological revolutions, growing scandals, and the continued fluctuation of oil prices have exposed businesses all around the world to the uncertainty of survival if they fail to integrate sustainability. Sustainable organizations — those that incorporate social, economic, and environmental ideals into their operations — add to the overall development of a nation while increasing their bottom line and reducing threat to its survival, he contends.
There is a shift from the perspective that shareholders, as members of wealthy families, are the only providers of capital for businesses, to the new view, which suggests that every member of the society across the globe is the new provider of capital for businesses to thrive
“Companies must take into account the critical needs and interests of all stakeholders rather than those of the shareholders only, if they hope to continue making profit. As a matter of fact, great companies and multinational enterprises are now appointing executives such as Corporate Stakeholder Relationship Officer, whose sole job is to find out what the least expectations of stakeholders are and to inform management accordingly so that the shareholders can have a more informed basis for developing a strategy,” King said in his keynote address at the 2015 conference. “There is obviously an increased need to change the corporate behavior of companies and the way business is done otherwise, a sustainable world for future generations would be forfeited. There is also a shift from the perspective that shareholders, as members of wealthy families, are the only providers of capital for businesses to the new view, which suggests that every member of the society across the globe is the new provider of capital for businesses to thrive. Therefore, the individual has become an integral part of the company.”
While hardly philanthropic, King’s message and the theme of the November conference appear to place the human element high on the corporate sustainability and responsibility totem pole. Other scheduled speakers in November include Tstitsi Mutasa, managing consultant for the Corporate Governance Centre of Zimbabwe Leadership Forum; Tayo Aduloju Ph.D., executive director of the Institute of Workforce Development in Nigeria; and Tagbo G. Agbazue Esq., director of Blanford Consulting in South Africa, specialists in corporate governance and broader sustainability issues pertaining to public and private sector corporations in Africa.
