Corporate Responsibility and Social Ventures

'CSR is a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders...'

- European Commission Green Paper 2001

As the private sector has always been an important source for development it is increasingly important to co-ordinate and foster dialogues between the public and the private sector together with NGOs and grassroots organizations in order to find constructive ways of stimulating local growth while minimizing involuntary negative effects on communities and emerging markets.

In the context of aid and sustainable development, CSR plays a vital part since it allows the private sector to become more involved in the process of achieving the goals lined out in the Millennium Declaration.

The fact that CSR has been viewed as a voluntary process within an organization implies that in times of slower economic development companies may choose to limit funding or CSR related activities. The need to create more transparent models of how a company can take advantage of a detailed and comprehensive CSR strategy, in both the short and long term independent of the present and future status of the market, is therefore vital.

SDGI views CSR slightly different from the EU (see also 'Promoting a European Framework for CSR, Commission Greenpaper 2001') since we also see that although the integration of social and environmental concerns in business operations is important, profit-driven organizations can develop viable and profit incentive driven CSR strategies which also meet global developmental goals. We believe that needs traditionally linked to the work of aid-agencies can effectively be met with a strong involvement from both the public and the private sector.

We believe that identifying clusters of relevant stakeholders and promoting sharing of effective practices is a cost effective model for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) and multinationals alike to work with CSR. This can contribute not only to capacity building but also knowledge transfer between sectors, communities, countries and industries.

We want to stress the need for effectiveness and maximizing of benefits from the increased involvement of the private sector in traditional aid work and the positive impact this could potentially have on the fight to eradicate poverty and inequity in the global community.