BEING RESPONSIBLE

Photo Courtesy: Grameen Phone

Too often, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been viewed as just another source of pressure on organisations or a passing fad. But as customers, employees, and suppliers--and, indeed, society more broadly--place increasing importance on CSR, some companies have started to look at it as a creative opportunity to fundamentally strengthen their businesses while contributing to society at the same time. There is no single accepted definition of CSR, which leads to plenty of confusion about what constitutes a CSR activity. But most businesses agree that it encompasses dual objectives--pursuing benefits for the business and for society.
The big challenge for companies is how to develop an approach that can truly deliver on such lofty ambitions. Some pursue CSR activities that can best be termed pet projects, as they reflect the personal interests of individual senior executives. While these activities may be presented with much noise and fanfare, they usually offer minimal benefits to either business or society. That said, some companies have managed to overcome this hurdle with innovative ideas. And the government offers incentives: company taxpayers are eligible to get 10 percent tax rebate for CSR donation up to Tk 8 crores subject to a limit of 20 percent of their income.
“We call it corporate responsibility,” says Debashis Roy, GM, Corporate Responsibility, Grameen Phone (GP). “When you call it CSR, it puts the focus on the society. But it has a wider horizon. A corporation has to be responsible in so many other ways: Are you doing business ethically? Is there transparency in your supply chain and financial transactions? Do you pay enough taxes? Do you treat your employees fairly? Do your female employees enjoy equal opportunities?” GP has over the years emerged as a leader in CSR, with innovative internal and external programmes. “The concept of CSR has evolved with time,” says Roy. “In the first phase, companies were doing philanthropy which is still needed in today's world. Then they started using CSR as a tool for risk management. For example, a company that manufactures cigarettes tries to compensate the 'bad deed' by planting trees. From mitigating risks, the concept now has evolved to creating shared value which aims at sustainable, long term societal and economic progress as well as the prosperity of the company.” Inspired by this concept, GP launched the first batch of online schools in Bangladesh in Bandarban, Rajshahi, Madaripur, Gazipur, and Gaibandha. Via video conference equipment, rural schools are connected with a school in Dhaka. The 'school' in Dhaka is set up in a studio where teachers deliver lessons on various subjects and students in a faraway village, where skilled teachers are scarce, can ask questions and learn. “Communication is our expertise, so we have used it to provide better health care to rural communities,” says Roy. “With the help of an especially designed hardware and software, we built tele-dermatology centres in rural areas. Patients are now, through video conference, getting the same quality service at an affordable cost.”

City Bank has created jobs for these women who had found all doors slammed shut before them. Photo Courtesy: City Bank

The bespectacled CSR head says that CSR can be a tool to attract talents to a company. Increasingly, employees are choosing to work for organisations whose values resonate with their own. “For example, if given a choice, I believe, a job-seeker would prefer a company that produces clean energy to one that manufactures cigarettes.”
In an age of big banks behaving badly, Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL) refreshingly sets the standard for how ethically and responsibly a bank can behave. One of the highest contributors in the country toward social causes, the DBBL foundation works mainly in education, healthcare and infrastructure development as CSR activities. “I do not agree with the term Corporate Social Responsibility. It's never a responsibility; it's a choice we must make,” says Sayem Ahmed, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the bank. “We do not have a separate department for CSR. The entire staff is involved. Since its establishment by M Sahabuddin Ahmed, the founding chairman, our organisation decided to give back to the society.”
The DBBL foundation awards 30,000 scholarships per year worth Tk 1.02 billion to students who are meritorious but not financially well off to pursue higher studies. Their scholarship programme so far has produced 255 doctors, 194 engineers and 70 graduates in Science, for example. They have also put 55 physically challenged students through university. Jointly with Prothom Alo and Bangladesh Mathematical Olympiad Committee, they have been organising the National Mathematics Olympiad which, since, 2004, has been a major platform for selecting young mathematicians who have gone on to participate in the International Mathematical Olympiad and won awards for Bangladesh.
“We have made it a point to be the first responders in disasters both natural and man-made,” says Sayem Ahmed. “On March 22, 2013, when a devastating tornado hit 21 villages of Brahmanbaria district, we distributed Taka 5 million and 700 bundles of CGI sheet among the victims.” The DDBL foundation has also been a pioneer in contributing to the healthcare sector. “We make donations to hospital on the condition that at least 50 percent of the patients get treatment for free or at discounted rates. And since 2008, we have arranged to perform 12,000 cataract operations in several districts and plastic surgery to 5163 young boys and girls.” says Ahmed. Sayem Ahmed believes that the idea of helping others in need must be instilled in us at an early age. “I remember at my school, I had to spend every Saturday teaching underprivileged kids. I think educational institutions at all levels should initiate programmes to give something back to the society.”

A view of primary eye check-up at a cataract operation camp of DBBL.Photo courtesy: DBBL

"CSR is not just about writing a cheque to a charity,” says Mohammad Zahirul Islam, the First Vice President and Head of CSR, City Bank. “It's about teaching someone how to fish rather than giving them one.” And while many organisations are smart enough to at least pay lip service to ideas like this, City Bank actually puts its money where its PR is. In partnership with Manusher Jonno Foundation, Bachte Shekha and MRDI, they launched a project in Benapole area of Jessore to create jobs for women who had previously been trafficked across the border for prostitution and other purposes. “We monitor and evaluate the programme every six months,” says Islam. “And we do regular philanthropy whenever we see an opportunity. We gave Taka 1 crore and our one day's salary which was Taka 27 lakhs to the victims of Rana Plaza collapse. In 2012, we renovated the Baridhara Park at a cost of about Taka 2 crore.” Citi Bank has also done significant work with cancer patients in slum areas.
Some companies like BSRM group are quite new in the world of CSR although they have been in philanthropy for decades. “My motivation came from a personal experience,” says Ruhi M Ahmed, Head of CSR, PR and Communication, BSRM group of companies. “One day my domestic help, a young girl suddenly disappeared. Later on, I learned that she had been trafficked to Mumbai.” So with the backing of the chairman of the company, she took up a project, with MRDI as the project coordinator, in Sharsha, Jessore to stop illegal trafficking of women. They also run a school in a slum area near Banglabazar in Chittagong where more than four hundred children get their education for free. “Here students can study up to class eight and after that they move to other institutions with our financial support,” says Ruhi Ahmed. Recently, BSRM has started constructing 15 reservoirs in Assampara, Sylhet to provide villagers with clean water. “Before joining here, I was working in a bank in Toronto,” says Ruhi Ahmed. “One day I received an email from the chairman saying that the company was going to create a CSR department and if I was interested to head it. Although I knew nothing about CSR, I gladly accepted the offer. I thought this was my chance to do something for my country.”
Still cynics suggest that CSR is at best a form of advertising. There is a reason for that. Moazzem Hossain, editor, Financial Express says, “A lot of companies in our country still have to do a lot more to ensure accountability, fairness and transparency. Only then can we expect them to do CSR properly.”
When it comes to CSR, there are no easy answers on what to do or how to do it. A company's interactions and interdependencies with society are many and complex. “Following the “triple-bottom lines”, a company first goes for “profit”, then for “people” and then for “planet,” says Dr Swapan Kumar Bala, professor, Department of Accounting and Information Systems, University of Dhaka and author of CSR Strategy Guidebook.
 “A profitable company has the motivational incentives for spending a fraction of their profit for 'people' and then for 'planet'. For a company this is something like 'quid pro quo', they have earned 'return' on their investment from the people and the planet and thereafter they should 'return' a part thereof for those stakeholders,” says Dr Bala.
Debashis Roy, head of corporate responsibility, GP says that there should be a national CSR policy and guidelines. “We can involve representatives from the private and the public sectors, academia, international development agencies. But it should be a living document. It should be periodically reviewed and adjusted to global changes.”

Hasibur Rahman Mukur, Photo: Probir Das

Management and Resources Development Initiative (MRDI) is a multi-disciplinary, not-for-profit, non-government organisation engaged in a wide spectrum of social development activities including but not limited to developing the standard and quality of the media and empowerment of women.  It also has been advocating popularising corporate social responsibility. Hasibur Rahman Mukur, its executive director, talks to the Star about the concept, strategy and objectives of CSR.

What is the philosophy behind CSR?
CSR is not necessarily a one-off charity; rather it aims at creating some lasting impacts to help build a caring society. In partnership with Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF), the MRDI launched a project titled 'Mainstreaming CSR to Address Poverty (MCAP)' back in April 2008 with the objective to develop CSR as an innovative and sustainable source of support for development.
What approach have you taken to popularise the concept?
It has been a concerted effort by different stakeholders-concerned government authorities, corporate community and advocacy platforms.

What has been the role of media in all this?
MRDI team identified local problems by monitoring media stories that could be addressed through CSR interventions. Teams comprised of journalists and researchers conducted investigations in the selected areas through questionnaire, interview and focus group discussion and developed separate projects for intervention.
 
Universities do not offer any courses on CSR. So we are not producing graduates with a clear understanding of the concept. What can be done about that?
As a result of our advocacy, two faculties and an institute of the University of Dhaka have adopted it in their curriculum. Also we are doing advocacy for a national CSR policy.