March 2005, id21 insights #54

Making business work for development

Rethinking corporate social responsibility

Business is everywhere. Some is crucial to development, while some is implicated in poverty, human rights abuses and environmental destruction. In recent years there has been an upturn in corporations taking responsibility for development challenges. Research shows this is a mixed blessing whilst development practitioners and policy makers could engage more critically to ensure real benefits for development.
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Other articles in this issue:

Home-grown CSR needed

Focus on South Asia

Corporate Social Responsibility is not new in south Asia. Leading industrial houses have pioneered progressive workplace and community practices for over a century. Yet, the severity of poverty demands new levels of engagement. A practical agenda building on existing humanitarian traditions and engaging in the key issues is needed.

Unleashing entrepreneurship

Making business work for the poor

There has been a big change in the United Nations's engagement with the private sector influenced by its stewardship of the Millennium Development Goals. It was the urgent need to enhance the contribution of the private sector in achieving the MDGs that prompted Secretary General Kofi Annan to appoint a commission to examine how the role of the private sector in this major global effort could be maximized.

Why AIDS is a workplace issue

HIV/AIDS is a clear threat to people's lives in developing countries; some companies, in providing risky working conditions and reducing support for or discriminating against people with HIV/AIDS, are responsible for putting people at even greater risk.

Pay your taxes!

Mining in Chile

One drawback of the increasing integration of companies into transnational corporations is that they may pay less tax in countries where they operate. Non-payment of taxes, transfer pricing, and intra-corporate financial flows are costing developing countries billions of dollars a year in lost revenues.

Women workers' voices ignored in Central America

Questionable labour practices in factories and plantations supplying foreign firms are often in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) limelight. Although women play a key role in the export industry workforce in developing countries, CSR initiatives are not equal for women and men. Unless women workers are involved in developing, implementing and monitoring codes of conduct, improvements in the working lives of employees will not happen.

Keeping tabs on TNCs

New approaches to regulating business

How governments, civil society and businesses promote corporate social responsibility (CSR) and regulate the behaviour of transnational corporations (TNCs) has changed in recent years. Certain types of government regulation and corporate self-regulation are giving way to co-regulation and corporate accountability. The pros and cons of these approaches are the focus of recent work by the UN Research Institute for Social Development.

Putting partnerships to work

The 2002 World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg stressed the need for strong partnerships between companies, civil society and government to achieve international development goals. Since then many have been set up focussing on local healthcare or water and sanitation for example. To date, however, less attention has been given the question of how partnerships can contribute to regional development.

Useful websites

Further web resources.

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Views expressed on these pages are not necessarily those of DFID, IDS, id21 or other contributing institutions. Copyright remains with the original authors but (unless stated otherwise) any article may be copied or quoted without restriction, provided both source (id21, insights) and authors are properly acknowledged and informed. Copyright © 2004 id21. All rights reserved.