Corporate social responsibility:
Promoting civic awareness
On May 16, AmCham Egypt’s CSR Committee hosted Ehab Abdou, president of the non-governmental organizations Nahdet El Mahrousa and Federation of Egyptian Youth, and Hala Youssef, challenge events manager, CARE Egypt, to discuss the topic: “Innovations in civil cociety: corporate sector partnerships.”
Abdou explained how Nahdet El Mahrousa works to engage young professionals in social development and public policy through various projects. For instance, the “Egyptian Expatriates for Development” project, in partnership with United Nations Volunteers (UNV), brings together expatriates and young Egyptian professionals to share their knowledge about social activism.
She said her organization acts also works with café chain Cilantro to promote social responsibility. It publishes newsletters and maintains bulletin boards announcing charity work opportunities and cultural events. There is also an online forum that connects Egyptian youth to exchange ideas about development issues.
Youssef spoke about CARE Egypt’s challenge events. These are innovative outdoor events that involve physical tasks, raise environmental awareness and provide networking opportunities in a fun, easy-going environment. The funds raised are donated to local development projects in some of the poorest regions of Egypt.
Other corporate-related projects include AAA, which offers HIV/AIDS orientation sessions to companies in return for a financial fee, and the El Shams Project, which provides small-scale horticultural growers with the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in Egypt’s growing domestic and export markets.
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A review of international oil companies
On April 18, the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee hosted three CSR specialists from the oil and gas industry for a discussion entitled “Petroleum sector engagement with CSR in Egypt.”
Sherif Selim, communications & external affairs specialist at BP Egypt, began by describing his company’s emphasis on promoting sustainable development. BP Egypt engages in long-term community projects that reflect local needs, government priorities and business strategy, rather than simply handing out checks, he said. These projects focus on education, entrepreneurship, job creation and energy. Employees can also donate money through the BP Employee Matching Fund, or volunteer their time with a charity of their own choosing.
Ahmed El Gabry, a program manager at Shell Egypt, next spoke about Shell Egypt’s youth capacity-building program, “Intilaaqah.” The program targets 18- to 32-year olds, and seeks to develop entrepreneurship and business skills. It also provides assistance for setting up and running a business. The program was launched in Egypt in 2004 as part of Shell’s “Livewire Program,” which operates in 24 countries. Shell Egypt is active in the areas of education, health, environment and culture, El Gabry said.
Nancy Mina, manager for community relations at Apache Egypt, spoke about her company’s efforts to promote girls’ education. In 2004, the company decided to collaborate with the National Council for Childhood & Motherhood on their Girls’ Education Initiative, which provides schooling to underprivileged girls in rural areas.
Apache Egypt built its first school in Abu Sir, south of Giza, using a cost-effective, easily repeatable design. Two hundred schools have been built since, with the help of private contributions and NGO volunteers. Mina said Apache Egypt’s employees also support the girls’ schools through regular visits, English lessons and clothing drives.
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Companies join fight against HIV/AIDS
A mCham’s CSR Committee held a meeting on February 21 entitled “Coca-Cola’s CSR initiatives and the Egypt Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS” with guest speakers Philippe Georgiou, North and West Africa’s public affairs and communications director for Coca-Cola, and Hannan Sulieman, senior program officer of UNICEF Egypt. The meeting provided an overview of both Coca-Cola’s corporate social responsibility programs and its involvement with the recently founded Egypt Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS (EBC), an initiative spearheaded by UNICEF Egypt and UNAIDS Egypt.
Georgiou discussed Coca-Cola Egypt’s strategic approach to CSR in Egypt as well as its commitments as a “corporate citizen.” The beverage maker’s social responsibility platform includes an emphasis and interest in environment, entrepreneurship, education and health themes. The company has, among other things, established a number of schools in rural areas that specifically aim to educate girls and has provided more than 200 families in Upper Egypt with clean water.
Last year, Coca-Cola Egypt was one of a handful of companies to sponsor the launch of the Egypt Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, the first private sector grouping of its kind in the Middle East. The EBC promotes a “business-to-business approach” providing services to companies such as advice on developing and implementing workplace policies, providing orientation sessions to employees, and sharing best practices and lessons learned.
Representing EBC as an implementing partner at the meeting, UNICEF Egypt’s Sulieman spoke on the issue of HIV/AIDS in Egypt, which despite its low prevalence is spreading at an alarming rate. According to Sulieman, over 30 of Egypt’s biggest private sector companies have pledged their support to the global partnership against HIV and AIDS. The pledge was the result of a one-day workshop in Cairo organized by the Ministry of Health & Population in coordination with UNAIDS co-sponsors UNICEF, the International Labor Organization (ILO), the UN Office on Drugs & Crime and Care Egypt.
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CSR as a community development tool
On February 7, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee hosted Ali Mokhtar, director of programs of the Center for Development Services (CDS), to address the topic: “CSR as a community development tool.”
Mokhtar explained the sustainability index the CDS is developing to rate the social responsibility of corporations, which is expected to be launched within the next few months. He said that government bureaucracy impedes the private sector’s full involvement in community projects. As a result, companies prefer to donate lump sums rather than participate in a project’s implementation.
Another problem is a lack of communication between NGOs and the private sector and within the private sector, as well as a lack of technical expertise. Mokhtar recommended the creation of a “CSR network” and a CSR information databank, which would facilitate collaboration.
On January 10, the CSR Committee hosted guest speaker Laila Iskander, managing director of Community & Institutional Development (CID) and a 2006 recipient of the Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award. The talk, held at the Nile Hilton, was entitled: “Where do NGOs and the private sector meet?”
Iskander noted that NGOs may have advantages over the private sector in terms of achieving social goals, such as the ability to assess a community’s needs, and have been successful at public mobilization. But she said NGOs could use the private sector’s technical knowledge and expertise. In turn, NGOs should be willing to provide greater transparency and reliability, and allow the private sector to take credit and advertise their charitable works.
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A critical review of the Global Compact
On December 19, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee
hosted Mohamed El Kalla, the UNDP's private sector specialist, to
talk about the UN's initiative on corporate social responsibility,
the "Global Compact." The presentation, entitled "The UNDP perspective
on CSR in Egypt: A critical review of the Global Compact," consisted
of three main parts: private sector engagement, public perceptions
of CSR and the UN response to CSR.
First, El Kalla explained that the most basic private sector CSR
programs are charity programs, in Egypt referred to as zakat. The
next level of complexity is the application of a set of social standards
to its internal governance, which may even extend to a firm's interaction
with the community and society at large. The most sophisticated
and effective CSR practices undertaken by companies, according to
El Kalla, involve establishing partnerships with either governmental
institutions or NGOs to address specific social issues. By providing
support to the experts, a company can make the most of its community
investments. Ideally, these relationships can be based on some mutual
benefit for the community and the firm to make the CSR initiative
more sustainable. In establishing the Global Compact, the UN decided
it would not attempt to force companies to comply with a set of
standards. Rather it would provide a framework that companies could
use to guide their CSR programs. The Global Compact is thus a purely
voluntary initiative with 10 core principles, four of which deal
with labor, including child labor, three with the environment, two
with human rights and one with corruption. The UN recognized that
companies respond to market demand for responsible business practices.
In essence, explained El Kalla, companies are no longer only accountable
to their shareholders, but to their communities and societies at
large.
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All you wanted to know about CSR, but were afraid to ask
AmCham’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee held a meeting on November 22 at which it hosted Egyptian participants of the third CSR Dubai summit, held last September. The panel included Amr Koura of Al Karma Edutainment, Galal Zaki of Perception Communication, Nora Soliman of AMIDEAST, Ramez Farag of Procter & Gamble and Ron Hess of Communication for Healthy Living. The aim of the session was to relate information from the Dubai conference to AmCham members.
Zaki made an introductory presentation on basic concepts of CSR such as the “triple bottom line,” which encourages companies to take account of people, environment and profits. He explained that by undertaking CSR projects a company can strengthen its brand reputation, motivate its workforce, improve customer service, attract talent, reduce costs and risks, and improve access to capital.
Soliman believes that CSR is the best solution for development in Egypt. Corporations should engage with local organizations in addressing development issues, apply pressure on government to enact change and bring their business acumen to development programs, she said. The most urgent needs are tackling poverty, improving education, access to clean drinking water and safe transportation.
Farag addressed the challenge of building CSR alliances between corporations. He began by giving the chronological development of CSR Europe, a pan-European business organization focused on CSR. He then evaluated the strengths and opportunities of this alliance, concluding by asking, “Who could initiate such a dialogue in Egypt?”
The final presentation was given by Ron Hess about reporting on CSR. He explained the reasons for measuring CSR, the standards and guidelines for measurement and how results are quantified. The importance of measuring and reporting resides in the credibility that it gives to the organization and the trust that it establishes with the stakeholders, he said. Strong evaluation and reporting will strengthen CSR efforts in Egypt, he concluded.
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From charity to change
AmCham’s new Corporate Social Responsibility Committee held a meeting entitled “Corporate social responsibility: from charity to change” on September 12. The committee hosted guest speaker Barbara Ibrahim, director of the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Social Engagement at the American University in Cairo.
Ibrahim began by defining a socially responsible corporation as a business that embodies transparency, ethical behavior, respect for stakeholder groups, and adds economic, social and environmental value. She emphasized the importance of understanding the relationship between CSR as an agent of sustainable development – businesses “doing good” for the community while “doing well” financially. Current CSR thinking revolves around the idea that “business is good for development and development is good for business.”
She argued that for CSR strategies to be successful, businesses must adopt new strategies that include “aligning CSR to core business activities, adopting pro-poor strategies that potentially expand their markets and finally forming alliances across firms, NGOs and governments, and utilizing core business competencies.” Several multinational companies worldwide have implemented these strategies successfully, such as TNT’s CSR projects globally, Cemex’s CSR in Mexico and BP’s in China.
Ibrahim ended her presentation by asking companies to take calculated risks. She explained that the scope of global warming and endangered resources, poverty and governance failures suggest that business as usual will not take us forward. According to her, innovation and a willingness to take risks are required for CSR projects to succeed.
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