In order to usher in real, long and permanent social change, we need to go beyond corporate social responsibility
Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) is a self-regulating business model. By engaging in CSR, companies operate in ways that enhance the society and the environment. In 2010, the ‘International Organisation for Standardisation’ (ISO) released a set of voluntary standards meant to help companies implement corporate social responsibility. ISO 26000 clarifies what social responsibility is and helps organisations translate CSR principles into effective actions.
Generally, companies participate in CSR in order to look better, feel better, do better and live longer. By participating in CSR the company looks good in the view of potential customers, business colleagues, investors and media. As per the annual study, compiled by the ‘Reputation Institute’ (RI), a Boston-based reputation-management consulting firm, the companies who top the list of CSR in the world are Lego, Microsoft, Google, Walt-Disney, BMW, Robert Bosch, Cisco systems, Rolls-Royce Aerospace, and Colgate Palmolive.
In India, the Companies Act 2013 has made it mandatory for profitable companies to spend 2% of their profits on CSR. The government’s suggested CSR activities include measures to eradicate hunger, promote education, environmental sustainability, protection of national heritage and rural sports, and contributions to prime minister’s relief fund. The company can implement these CSR activities on its own, or through its non-profit foundation or through independently registered non-profit organisations that have a record of at least three years in similar activities. This statutory provision has led to a boom in the ‘Non-Government Organisations’ (NGOs) that can implement these CSR activities. A recent article in the Times of India reported that there are over 2 million operational NGOs in India.
For the companies, choosing the right partner for CSR from such a large number of NGOs isn’t an easy job. Some organisations such as ‘Samhita Social Ventures’ and ‘HelpYourNGO’ are trying to facilitate this process by setting up online portals to assist. These portals group the NGOs across different sectors such as education, sanitation, women’s welfare, water, livelihood, and children; and also seek to provide a qualitative evaluation of the NGOs. While the larger companies typically have CSR teams to carry out evaluations and monitor the CSR spends, the ‘Small & Medium Enterprises’ (SMEs) do not have specialist teams who are assigned this activity. The government regulations allow such SMEs to pool their CSR funds with other companies to achieve scale and share a collective implementation process.
Recently, ‘Prayaan Social Enterprise Foundation’, the non-profit organisation which provides early education solutions to government pre-schools in Goa, organised a conference ‘Beyond Corporate Social Responsibility’ at GCCI. The summit was attended by personnel from the ‘Directorate of Women and Child Welfare’, CSR personnel from leading corporates such as Nestle, MRF, Persistent Systems, Geno Pharma and personnel from leading non-profits such as SETHU, I-Create, HelpAge India, Road Safety Forum. The idea to organise this conference was to create a common platform where government officials, Corporate CSR personnel and the non-profits could meet, discuss, deliberate and jointly find areas of collaboration for social work.
The theme of the conference “Beyond Corporate Social Responsibility” tried to explore the possibilities of how the three change-agents viz. the government sector, the corporate sector and the non-profit sector could collaborate and jointly find solutions to various social problems. After seventy-one years of independence, our country-men continue to face innumerable challenges on account of poverty, poor health care, inefficient education systems, divisive caste systems, deficient infrastructure, etc. The challenges are overwhelming and so individual efforts by the three sectors fail to address these problems. The government sector lacks professionalism, and many times we find that the social welfare schemes get lost in the bureaucratic procedures and cannot achieve the goals for which they are formed. The corporate sector, through their corporate responsibility commitments, also assists in this process. However, sometimes, we find that these efforts are directed towards creating a good brand image or to capture new markets. The corporates work on social projects in the vicinity of their establishment for fixed periods. Even the partnering with non-profits is for a year or two. Being output- oriented, they are also more interested in tracking the measurable change that an intervention creates. Hence, limited social change is achieved. On the other hand, the non-profits work at the grass-root levels. But they continuously battle with fund constraints. Small non-profits do not have professional management. They seamlessly try to develop proposals that are clear on outputs and processes and try to demonstrate a well-thought strategy so that their proposals can obtain CSR funding.
To have a long-lasting and far-reaching social change, the collaboration of these three sectors is the need of the hour. The companies can bring their skills such as project management, technical or specialist skills, and output orientation to social projects. Similarly, the government can formulate social welfare schemes and the non-profits can reach them to the grass-root levels.
By going beyond the legal madate of Corporate Social Responsibility, we can usher in real, long and permanent social change
