Muscat: Individuals, private companies and government organisations in Oman are urged to further boost partnership to apply effective CSR concept as a win-win strategy within their organisations, confirmed participants at the CSR workshop held on Monday (March 18) at Grand Hyatt Muscat, organised by the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE).
Moderated by Dr. Khamis bin Rajab Al Balushi, Consultant at the Industrial Innovation Center, the workshop was attended by a number of specialists and experts working in various government and private organisations in the Sultanate.
This workshop came as a follow up of the recent held CSR seminar last February, and discussed how certain plans and mechanisms can be competently utilised to apply social responsibility concept for the enterprises. The participants presented a number of cases studies and practical applications from the local industries.
"The case studies discussed the common understanding that we could arrive at in the earlier seminar during the Oman Manufacturing Group gathering. We would be documenting these proceedings with the idea of taking it to the next level of popularising role model initiatives among our tenant firms," said Dr. Mohammed Sherif Aziz, Advisor (Strategic Planning) at the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE).
PEIE has an advocacy role to play in popularising concepts such as CSR among its 1100 odd tenant firms located in its industrial estates across the country, Sherif stressed. "We would love to see more and more of our tenant factories getting into serious CSR activities, to the best of their abilities," Sherif said, adding: "We do understand that companies have incessant commercial pressures. If possible we would like to evolve a mechanism to work with them in implementing effective CSR programmes and also recognise and reward the best practices. But we are very much at the beginning stage."
"We are playing our own CSR role in creating industrial agglomerations, which are sensible enough to understand the larger context of the sustainability issue. It is in this context that we organised a CSR Seminar in the month of February as a kick-off event of the role that we are going to play," he pointed out.
Notable Progress
The Sultanate has developed gradually but sustainably, with equitable distribution of development across the country and with clear articulation of environmental concerns, noted Sherif. "PEIE exists in a country with a developmental model different from the general trend in the region. PEIE sees a unique selling proposition derived from the environment in which it exists, by which we emphasise equally on sustainable business opportunities and quality of life. We want to be engaged in building healthy and sustainable industrial or business communities," Sherif says.
From your point of view, what does CSR refers to? "In trying to understand what Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR is, it is extremely important to know what it is not. First of all, we need to understand that CSR is not just charity. Charity in the general sense of the term reflects an optional action. CSR, on the other hand is an inherent responsibility; a responsibility for the impact of your business and business processes in the ecosystem in which you exist. In other words, you as a mining company or as a manufacturer understand the positive and negative impacts of your business and how you do the business and then take every possible step to address the negative impacts."
He continues saying: "Starting with what business you want to do, you may actually express your CSR values. Having decided and embarked on a business, how you do it becomes equally important. Mitigating the negative impacts, however small they may be, can often be done much beyond what is stipulated by the laws so that you make a conscious contribution towards 'sustainability' of the environment. I need not say that this sustainability position for an organisation ultimately gets linked to its brand image."
When asked about the strategy followed by most organisations in identifying suitable CSR projects, Sherif had this to say: "A company's CSR initiative has to be primarily derived from or connected to its core business and business processes. This is why I said there is an inherent responsibility. Charity can be anything. We have organisations right here in Oman which have CSR initiatives with clear distinction between various kinds of activities. To my understanding, they have activities to mitigate negative impacts related to their operations, activities which deliver social benefits and economic opportunities to local communities affected by their operations, activities unrelated to any direct impact but which contribute positively to the communities in which they operate and finally philanthropic steps, which are totally unrelated to their business."
"CSR should actually start with an inner circle of your own people and processes. Then there is the outer circle where the impact on the society at large has to be considered. An organisation cannot ignore the first and do some publicity stunts in public domain. If your focus is only on the latter it is a PR exercise not a CSR," he emphasised.
Why is it very complicated to define CSR? "First of all, the practice of CSR is not something new. But, of late, the very 'sustainability' of all the flora and fauna around us is at stake! Though we have benefitted from the transformation from an agrarian to industrialised and then to knowledge-based societies, we are pretty aware about the colossal impact of these on the environment and the societies. For a while, we forgot that growth for the sake of growth is not sustainable. A natural resource based economic model has to necessarily consider how to conserve the resource as much as possible; then we are trying to grow in a responsible manner."
"CSR is certainly a commitment of business to contribute to sustainable economic development, working with employees, their families and the local community to improve quality of life for all. You see a clear urge to accept a multi-stakeholder approach in this way of wealth creation."
"Now that there is an increasing concern for these things at a global level, institutions such as the UN and the European Commission are constantly revisiting this concept and refining it to provide a more practical and better meaning and understanding so that organizations consider CSR as a value adding initiative. You may be aware of the UN supported Principles for Responsible Investment Initiative (PRI). The Principles provide a voluntary framework by which all investors can incorporate social and corporate governance issues into their decision-making and ownership practices and so better align their objectives with those of society at large. The initiative was coordinated by the UNEP Finance Initiative and the UN Global Compact, the latter being a strategic policy initiative for businesses committing to universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Much of these have happened in the recent times."
How do CSR initiatives contribute in building stronger relations between employees and communities? "More than two decades ago, I had stumbled upon an advertisement from a corporate group, which said that they run a hospital, a cancer care centre, a school, an excellent township and so on and then in a corner of their full page advertisement they said, "We also make steel". At that point in time, when hardly anybody talked about CSR, this was a larger than life statement. Much later I have learned that this global group from a developing country has two-third of their profits going into two charitable trusts, which manage their CSR programmes. This is something incredible! Isn't it? Therefore, for some organizations, CSR has been a passion since several years; for some others it could still be a burden!! CSR is, in fact, a win-win situation for the company with all its stakeholders. Unless you do it, you will not have sufficient brand value. In fact, it is possible that as years pass by CSR could even become mandatory, the way environmental clearances are required these days. Better be prepared while identifying new business ideas."
Oman Manufacturing Group or OMG is a regular gathering that PEIE organises to discuss and debate on many concepts. In organising a CSR seminar last February, PEIE aimed at bringing in some conceptual clarity on the issue. Representatives from Oman Oil Company, Oman LNG, OMIFCO and the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry discussed about their CSR practices in the presence of the Minster of Commerce and Industry, and the Minister of Social Development. "It was indeed a very live discussion and debate on the issue. If you look at the role of Dubai Chamber, they act as an encourager and a facilitator for CSR initiatives among their members. We have had the views of certain NGOs and Charity institutions articulated very well during the panel discussion. In a nutshell, it can be said that there was a common agreement on the fact that CSR is much more than charity and that this is not just giving back to the society in some convenient form. On the other hand it should be seen as a comprehensive approach somehow linked to the core business of companies."
Commenting on Oman's future in the field of CSR, Sherif said: "In this information era, nation states are ensuring governance not only through government machinery but also through private actors. Governments set the policy guidelines and regulatory framework for private entities and civil society to play their roles, which were otherwise totally government functions. So, there is an obvious shift of importance from government to governance. That is why we have telecom regulatory authorities and electricity regulatory authorities emerging and the actual functions being transferred to the private sector. This is an acceptance of the importance of multi-stakeholder situation in making all our lives a lot easier and smarter. I think, to start with, it will be a good idea for the government to have some CSR guidelines and policies in place. At the global level, we have the UN Global Compact, ISO 26000 etc. as guidelines. Of course, ISO 26000 is still not a standard, but a guideline. Needless to say that good effort need be recognized appropriately," Sherif added.
© Press Release 2012
