Seminar on corporate social responsibility held

Page 38
March 3, 2008

THE Executive Director of Opportunities Industrialisation Centre International (OICI), Ghana, Dr Josiah Mills Cobbah, has called on companies and philanthropic institutions to monitor and evaluate their corporate social responsibility programmes to the society.
The move, he said, was to ensure that their programmes achieved their desired objectives.
Dr Cobbah made the call at the third corporate social responsibility seminar and business luncheon organised by the Opportunities Industrialisation Centre International, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), in Accra.
The seminar, which was on the theme: “Doing Good and Stimulating Business in Ghana”, was to look at corporate social responsibility and its benefits to the company and community, share lessons learned from corporate organisations and provide networking opportunities with corporate leaders.
Dr Cobbah stressed the need for corporate social responsibility programmes to be incorporated into the vision, mission, business plans and budgets of companies and institutions.
“Companies should identify areas for their corporate social responsibility like health and water micro-finance and target groups like the youth and women. Companies need to commit to a focused, long-term planned corporate social responsibility programme,” he said.
He underscored the need for companies to measure the impact of their social responsibility programmes to ensure that they achieved their intended objectives, adding that “the commercial or business objectives of the company must ensure that investments made yield sustainable returns appreciated by all constituents”.
Dr Cobbah mentioned some of the benefits of corporate social responsibility as positive social investment and change, maximising business profit, heightened reputation and image in the eyes of the public and employees, as well as improved company reputation and risk management.
Giving an overview of corporate social responsibility practices in the country, he said most companies were focused solely on population or profit goals and targeted with limited, unplanned corporate philanthropy as and when the need arose.
He said some companies had moved to corporate social marketing and had created foundations, while others had moved further to socially responsible business, adding that overall, corporate social responsibility practice, except for big multi-national companies in the country, was limited and poor.
The Country Representative of OICI, Ms Carla Dominique Denizard, said the NGO could help design and co-implement social responsibility programmes and ensure that the benefits intended for such programmes were achieved.
She said it also monitored and evaluated the impacts of programmes to make sure they achieved the intended benefits and also assisted in showcasing the social good that companies did with clients, employees and the public.
“We are helping companies design and implement sustainable programmes. We are helping them achieve both sustainable development and meet corporate social responsibility needs,” she said.
Ms Denizard said the vision of OICI was to become the premier NGO helping the poor and disadvantaged in the country through the design and implementation of integrated community development and skills training programme.