*{AFRICA ECONOMIC SUMMIT 2002

CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP AND THE NEPAD [http://www.weforum.org/pdf/GCCI/GCCI_NEPAD.pdf]

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA 5-7 JUNE}

Corporate citizenship can be defined as the contribution that a company makes to society through its core business activities, its social investment and philanthropy programmes, and its engagement in public policy. It is determined by the manner in which a company manages its economic, social and environmental impacts and its relationships with different stakeholders, in particular shareholders, employees, customers, business partners, governments and communities. In recent years corporate citizenship has become an increasingly important issue on the agendas of chief executives, chairmen, boards of directors and executive management teams, not as a nice-to-have, charitable “add-on”, but as a fundamental element of good business practices and effective leadership.

At the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2002, a group of 36 leading CEOs from a variety of countries and industry sectors supported a framework for action on Global Corporate Citizenship. Although the statement emphasized the importance of global action, it recognized the critical need for local leadership and implementation that is relevant to the challenges and opportunities in different regions of the world. Nowhere is this more important than in Africa. Good corporate citizenship will be absolutely central to the success of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and its goals of encouraging economic growth and reducing poverty. African governments must play the key leadership role in setting the appropriate framework for the NEPAD, but within this framework the private sector can make a contribution in all of the following areas:
1. promoting peace, security, democracy and good governance;
2. developing priority sectors by bridging gaps in infrastructure, building knowledge and skills, addressing poverty reduction, especially among women, and reversing the brain drain by building and retaining human capacities critical for Africa’s development;
3. gaining investor trust to help mobilize resources in Africa and develop the private sector.

Good corporate citizenship can play a role in the following ways:

Core business activities: companies can support the goals of the NEPAD first and foremost through their core investments and operations. Through these activities companies can help to increase private sector investment and trade in Africa while at the same time making concerted efforts to ensure that the socio-economic and environmental multipliers of these activities are positive for host countries and communities, and that negative impacts are minimized. The key contributions that business can make are through:
Achieving profitable performance, resulting from resource efficiency and enhancement, responding to customer needs and opportunities, developing positive stakeholder relationships, and managing risks and reputation; and
Leveraging positive business multipliers, such as generating investment, income and foreign exchange, creating jobs, developing human resources, providing appropriate goods and services, building local business systems and linkages with small and medium-sized companies, sharing international standards and business practices in areas such as corporate governance, ethics, health, safety and the environment, transferring technology, and establishing institutional and physical  infrastructure.

Social investment and philanthropy programmes: focusing directly on addressing social issues outside a company, these programmes may involve providing cash donations from business itself or from corporate foundations as well as in-kind support from employee volunteer programmes, donation of products, services and premises. Through support for projects that concentrate on building sustainability in the long term, particularly in key areas such as health and education, working in partnership with other sectors and capacity-building individuals and institutions as part of this work, companies can make a real impact on community development in Africa.

Engagement in policy dialogue: by engaging in legitimate dialogue with government and civil society leaders at local, national and international levels the private sector can assist in promoting ethical business practices, tackling bribery and corruption, creating an enabling environment for private enterprise and investment, supporting good governance, promoting institution building and contributing to economic, social and environmental policies within Africa and internationally. These efforts can assist in improving administration, increasing accountability and supporting Africa.

*{A few examples of these activities in action are provided on the following page.}