“Real CSR vs Bogus CSR”
This is in response to your Business Times editorial ‘Real’ CSR Vs ‘bogus’ CSR which appeared last week. First I wish to thank you for putting CSR under the microscope. The media has an important role to play here and having the Business Times scrutinising CSR activities is definitely a plus point.
We appreciate our recent three-day workshop, conducted under the guidance of international CSR Guru, Professor Wayne Visser, being covered in your editorial. However, we wish to point out that CSR Lanka’s role in this whole matter of Corporate Social Responsibility is that of a facilitator, moderator and mediator. We aim at bringing about private and public sector partnerships and position ourselves as the apex body for CSR in Sri Lanka. However, it needs to be mentioned that we would not be playing the role of a regulator and therefore it is not in our purview to crack the whip. The Transformative CSR formula that we are adopting is intended to bring a systemic change rather than anything strategic or tactical.
We agree that doing CSR activities, which are connected to the promotional aspect of a company and becomes a mere PR opportunity to be showcased in the media, is not the best way to go for any company. Having said this we also believe that philanthropy is a part of our Sri Lankan culture and CSR Lanka does not look down upon such charitable gestures by companies especially knowing that the safety net in countries like ours who do not have people wholly covered under insurance is very weak. Therefore, in times of disaster charitable projects become an important part of our corporate social responsibility.
However, we are striving towards a systemic change, which is focussing our activities on identifying and tracking the root causes of our present day unsustainability. Here we need innovative business models, which will revolutionise processes, products and services. We will be encouraging companies to also look at the larger picture and see how it connects to the micro level; in other words how their company’s activities fit the eco system not only on a national level but also on an international level. CSR in this new way of thinking is beyond mere projects and should look at the larger socio economic needs in the country as well as its impact on a global level. In Sri Lanka to achieve this goal both the private and public sectors need to engage and we have take the first steps by inviting key public sector people for a session with Dr. Wayne Visser and many important issues were raised which we intend following up to smoothen the interaction between public and private sector as far as CSR is concerned.
Apart from that we would like to point out that there is some misunderstanding in your article. Even though the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and CSR Lanka may be interacting with the same companies in the business sector, these two organisations have no connection to each other. CSR Lanka is now the apex body for CSR in this country and has close on 40 key companies in Colombo in its membership, who will be the vanguard that will spearhead transformative CSR in this country.
Chandula Abeywickrema
Chairman, CSR Sri Lanka