The results are in, and the lion’s share of opinions reflects a desire for regional consolidation and assimilation of CSR practices by the private sector. Raji Hattar, chief sustainability and compliance officer at Aramex, underlined that, “the economic boom in the region should encourage the development of CSR programs that will help sustain long-term social and economic prosperity,” and added, with the region’s rapid population growth “we will need to create millions of jobs for the next generation. Therefore, everyone needs to pull together to address the many challenges we face, turning them into opportunities for innovation, creativity, and productivity.”
Governments, though, must initially start off by creating encouragement schemes to first raise awareness throughout the private and public sectors, and then by motivating and/or forcing them to get active. Mirroring this need, George Khawam, marketing director of McDonald’s Kuwait, also wants to see more “awareness of CSR among societies” in the Gulf.
Yassin Al-Attas, external relations general manager at Procter & Gamble Gulf, hopes to see “more engagement from companies,” and “stronger partnerships between NGOs, civil societies, communities, and the MNCs so they will think collectively [and] much more strategically, [to then] make better selections of case-related initiatives, knowing that each company contributes differently to the same CSR cause.”
In order for CSR to be more productive and proactive throughout the Arab world, Belinda Scott, CSR officer at the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, recommended “higher levels of reporting so that we have lots of information in the region to learn from.” With such a high deficit of research, reports, and in-depth studies on CSR in the region, this suggestion should be taken quite seriously.
Mahmud Muhammad al-Tukistani, head of the CSR unit at the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia, hopes that CSR “will be positioned as a main concern” and “for all companies to adapt CSR activities.” Al-Tukistani creatively suggests for the region to aim at creating “an Arabian index for CSR.” By doing so, the Gulf has the chance to sparkle amongst its international counterparts. Najeeb Al-Ali, executive director at the Dubai Center for Corporate Values (DCCV), believes the GCC holds great potential to stand out, saying, “we have an opportunity to shine globally. Not just in the Arab world, but globally, to become CSR and sustainability centered.” Through deeper collective efforts across the region, Al-Ali feels, the Gulf can “become a model internationally,” as opposed to doing small projects here and there.
Jamil Ezzo, director general of the ICDL GCC Foundation, would like to see the private sector “more engaged,” and “the government understanding the expectations from the private sector, aside from employing local work force [or Emiratization] … and more partnerships being established between the government and the private sector in terms of CSR activities.” Insisting on the need for an incentive or taxation scheme, Ezzo explained that, “the private sector won’t do anything if they don’t have to.”
Correspondingly, Steve Vaile, founder and CEO of H2O New Media, wants CSR “brought into government legislation, and for companies to be audited regarding their compliance.” Vaile suggested, and hopes for, an independent rating body to provide ratings on companies’ CSR performance and for the results to be published. Also, media promotion and championing of CSR positive business “will help to promote CSR adoption in the region if companies can see a direct benefit.”
The message is clear: everybody needs to be on board the CSR task force before it starts to hamper their ‘modern’ business values.
