What’s New

Posted on

Vietnam 2011 Notes

17 September 2011

I recently returned from a trip to Vietnam, where I was delivering a CSR workshop for the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce. It was my first visit and unfortunately, besides work, I had just a few hours to visit the museum in Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) before going to the airport. It struck me as quite a poor and crowded city, very Western in some ways (clothes, etc., after French colonialism of 150 years) and very Eastern in others. Much like Cambodia, it is hot and humid, but a massive and bustling river flows through the city. They are not geared for tourism at all, which is quite refreshing actually (I guess Hanoi, which we looked at, would be different).

The museum was in a zoo garden and only opened at 1.30 pm, so bizarrely I found myself watching a very friendly giraffe, who likes to have his head scratched by visitors, and an orangutan with massive hands who seemed nearly human. The museum was interesting, but all pre-dated the war, which was a pity. My hotel – the beautiful colonial era Hotel Majestic – had a wonderful terrace overlooking the Saigon River (and the mad, hooting traffic alongside), although I did feel uncomfortable with all its opulence in the midst of a country where the average GDP per capita is approximately $1,000.

Share this page

Share
Posted on

South Africa 2011 Notes

28 August 2011

Just back from our Cape holiday in South Africa. The first few days were spent in Swellendam, with visits to the dams (where poor Dusk, now 15 years old, ripped her back claw and needed rushing to the vet) and Barrydale (for the family’s traditional Sunday lunch at the Country Pumpkin). Then we went to Hermanus, where we spotted a single whale and Veneta & Indira swam in the icy water at Grotto Bay, before we headed to Bertie & Magda’s house in Kraaifontein, where we spent two nights.

The next day, I met with Guy Lundy while the girls went to the aquarium at the Waterfront. As it turned out, we had a bird’s eye view of a municipal strikers’ protest down Hertzog Boulevard, during which some of their members callously looted nearby hawkers’ stands. I then picked up Marie Steyn (now 82 and still sweet as ever) and we joined I & V for lunch at the Waterfront. After Marie confessed that she’d never had a ‘sparkler’ at the Spur restaurant, I told the manager that it was her birthday (even though it wasn’t) and she duly received a sparkler in her ice cream desert, complete with a round of happy birthday sung by the waiters.

After dropping off Marie, in the afternoon we headed to Kirstenbosch to meet with Gordon Oliver. There was a stunning exhibition in the Gardens called ‘Untamed’, combining Dylan Lewis’ sculptures, Ian McCallum’s poetry, Enrico Daffonchio’s architecure and David Davison’s conceptual design. In the evening, we had dinner with Karen Weinberg, who is almost fully recovered from the brain virus which wiped out her speech capacity some 18 months ago.

On our second day in Cape Town, we went up Signal Hill and Table Mountain (the weather was windy but clear). We had hoped to take a ferry out to Robben Island, but it was booked up a day in advance. Back in Swellendam, we did excursions to Montagu hot springs, the Duiwelsbos waterfall and Sulina’s Faery Sanctuary, before heading to Oudtshoorn for a visit to the Cango Caves, Cango Ostrich Farm and a Wildlife Sanctuary. I got to ride one ostrich (for about 10 metres) and to ‘kiss’ another (allowing it to peck a pellet from between my lips). The next day we went all the way to Seaview via Mossell Bay, Knysna and Plettenberg Bay (where we swam). A day later, we heard there had been a shark attack at Plett, so I guess we were lucky.

A visit to the Elephant Sanctuary outside Knysna gave us all a chance to feed and touch some tame (but free range) elephants, while Lion Park in Seaview gave Indira & Veneta the chance to handle some 6 week old lion cubs, as well as to spot some giraffe and hartebees. When we finally made it to Addo Elephant Park, the weather was cold, with light showers, so not ideal for game viewing, but we managed to see some kudu and elephant fairly close up.

On our final day, we managed to get the Robben Island ferry and to visit the prison. The prisoner stories, displayed in some of the cells, were most interesting, so it was frustrating not to have much time to look at these (having spent excessively long on the bus driving to less interesting sites around the island). Nevertheless, I was inspired to buy Ahmed Kathrada’s Memoirs, so that should give similar (and much more detailed) insights.

Overall, it was a good holiday and wonderful to spend a bit of time with my parents and see the great progress that has been made on the property. The garden is looking very established and the lodge is three-quarters complete. It was an ideal time of year to visit, with all the early spring flowers and green cultivated fields. The weather was cool most of the time, with some rain, but we had some great sunny days too.

My impressions from talking to friends and family is that poor political leadership is a constant frustration, exacerbated by waves of labour strike action (the media now refers to a ‘strike season’ every year). Indira was clearly shocked by conditions in the squatter camps and townships, as well as the pervasive division of labour along racial lines (virtually all blue-colour jobs are still done by black people). However, I saw positive signs as well, such as solar panels on the roofs of thousands of low cost houses, well maintained roads and other infrastructure and a healthy climate of political debate.

The overwhelming social challenges did make me wonder more deeply about whether I am doing enough; whether my vision is too tame and my actions too pedestrian. I also felt more nostalgia on this trip than previously, so maybe something is shifting in my attitude to both my work and South Africa. Now that I am back in London, there is not much time for reflection, as I head off on my Singapore-Philippines-Vietnam trip in a few days. However, sooner or later, I feel I will need to make a big shift in my work. I sense it is time for another bold career move.

Share This Page

Share
Posted on

Glocality

Glocality:

Thinking Global and Acting Local in CSR

Blog by Wayne Visser

The term ‘glocal’ – a portmanteau of global and local – is said to come from the Japanese word dochakuka, which simply means global localization. Originally referring to a way of adapting farming techniques to local conditions, dochakuka evolved into a marketing strategy when Japanese businessmen adopted it in the 1980s.

It is said that the English word ‘glocal’ was first coined by Akio Morita, founder of Sony Corporation. In fact, in 2008, Sony Music Corporation even trademarked the phrase ‘go glocal’. Glocality was subsequently introduced and popularized in the West in the 1990s by sociologists Manfred Lange, Roland Robertson, Keith Hampton, Barry Wellman and Zygmunt Bauman.

The underlying concept of ‘think global, act local’ claims somewhat more varied origins. In a broad, abstract sense, it is captured in the ancient Hermetic idea of ‘as above, so below’ – the macrocosm is reflected in the microcosm and vice versa. Or as Goethe put it: ‘If (we) would seek comfort in the whole, (we) must learn to discover the whole in the smallest part.’ More concretely and recently, the Scots town planner and social activist Patrick Geddes applied the concept in his 1915 book Cities in Evolution, saying:

Local character is thus no mere accidental old-world quaintness, as its mimics think and say. It is attained only in course of adequate grasp and treatment of the whole environment, and in active sympathy with the essential and characteristic life of the place concerned.

Sometimes, glocality maintains its geographical rootedness. For example, Neighborhood Knowledge California is a project of the Advanced Policy Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, which serves as a state-wide, interactive website that assembles and maps a variety of databases that can be used in neighbourhood research. Its aim is to promote greater equity in housing and banking policy. In addition, it functions as a geographic repository for users to map their own communities by uploading their own datasets.

When and by whom the phrase ‘think global, act local’ was first applied to environmental issues is a matter of some dispute. It may have been introduced by David Brower, founder of Friends of the Earth, in 1969, or by Rene Dubos as an advisor to the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment. Also, in 1979, Canadian futurist Frank Feather chaired a conference called ‘Thinking Globally, Acting Locally’. Whatever its origins, the notion of glocality has entered into the popular consciousness.

It was given its most visible and practical expression when the Rio Earth Summit issued Local Agenda 21 in 1992, which was a programme of action for applying the global principles of sustainable development in local contexts. Today, there is also a Glocalist magazine in Austria that offers a daily online newspaper, weekly digital magazine and monthly print magazine …

Continue reading

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”download” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/blog_glocality_wvisser.pdf”]Pdf[/button] Glocality: Thinking Global and Acting Local in CSR (blog)

Related websites

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”tick” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/books/the-age-of-responsibility”]Link[/button] The Age of Responsibility (book)

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”tick” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.csrinternational.org”]Link[/button] CSR International (website)

Cite this blog

Visser, W. (2011) Glocality: Thinking Global and Acting Local in CSR, Wayne Visser Blog Briefing, 11 July 2011.

Share this page

Share
Posted on

The Nature of CSR Leadership

The Nature of CSR Leadership:

Definitions, Characteristics and Paradoxes

Paper by Wayne Visser

In CSR circles, we see the task of creating a more equitable and sustainable world as both a serious challenge and an enormous opportunity. We are convinced that without bold and effective leadership – at a political, institutional and individual level – we will fail to resolve our most serious social and environmental crises. We will also miss out on the vast business opportunities presented by society’s transition to a sustainable economy.

Over the past few years, in response to these global challenges and opportunities, we have seen more and more evidence of CSR leadership emerging, albeit not nearly enough. In order to better understand what makes these leaders effective catalysts for positive change, I have been conducting research with the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership (CPSL), mainly focused on individual leaders in business. In this short paper, I present some of our initial findings and conclusions.

What is Leadership?

Our first step in understanding CSR leadership was to go back to the basics and ask, What is leadership? There are of course numerous existing definitions (see for example Box 1). However, the definition we developed at CPSL is that a leader:

Someone who can craft a vision and inspire people to act collectively to make it happen, responding to whatever changes and challenges arise along the way.

There are also various theories on leadership and while it is not our intention to provide an exhaustive review of these, they do set a frame for CSR leadership. Hence, we can distinguish three main approaches to understanding leadership:

  1. The Trait/Style school, which focuses on the characteristics or approaches of individual leaders;
  2. The Situational/Context school, which focuses on how the external environment shapes leadership action; and
  3. The Contingency/Interactionist school, which is about the interaction between the individual leader and his/her framing context.

To these can be added the rather more practical tenets of leadership as described by Goffee and Jones (2009):

  1. Leadership is relational.  It is something you do with people, not to people.  Put simply, you cannot be a leader without followers.  Like all relationships, it needs to be monitored and cultivated.
  2. Leadership is non-hierarchical.  Formal authority or a title doesn’t make you a leader.  Leaders can be found at all levels.
  3. Leadership is contextual.  You need to size up and tap into what exists around you and then bring more to the party.

What is CSR Leadership?

These general perspectives on leadership establish the foundation for our more specific enquiry into the nature of CSR leadership. Based on our review of the academic literature, together with CPSL’s experience working with senior leaders over the past 20 years, we distilled the following simple definition: A CSR leader is someone who inspires and supports action towards a better world …

Continue reading

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”download” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/paper_csr_leadership_wvisser.pdf”]Pdf[/button] The Nature of CSR Leadership (paper)

Related pages

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”info” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/books/the-age-of-responsibility”]Page[/button] The Age of Responsibility (book)

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”tick” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.cpsl.cam.ac.uk”]Link[/button] Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership (website)

Cite this article

Visser, W. (2011) The Nature of CSR Leadership: Definitions, Characteristics and Paradoxes, CSR International Paper Series, No. 4.

Share this page

Share
Posted on

CSR and Pharmaceuticals – Part 2

CSR and Pharmaceuticals:

Big Pharma on Trial – Part 2

Blog by Wayne Visser

It is nearly ten years later and the pharmaceutical companies are still trying to rebuild their reputations. As Mail & Guardian journalist Qudsiya Karrim reported for Inside Story in 2010: The past decade has been a public relations nightmare for big pharmaceutical companies – and deservedly so, their critics say. Activists and nongovernment organizations the world over have slated Big Pharma for putting profits ahead of people and vigorously enforcing their intellectual property rights, preventing many from gaining access to life-saving medication. It’s an ugly story told repeatedly – in the media, over dinner, at AIDS conferences and during university seminars – and it has earned the pharmaceutical industry an unmatched notoriety.

But have they learned their lesson? The latest and possibly most responsive action has been from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Early in 2009, CEO Andrew Witty announced a major reform in their corporate policy on drug affordability and accessibility. In particular, he said GSK will cut its prices for all drugs in the 50 least developed countries to no more than 25% of the levels in the UK and US – and less if possible – and make drugs more affordable in middle-income countries such as Brazil and India. In addition, GSK will reinvest 20% of any profits it makes in the least developed countries in hospitals, clinics and staff and invite scientists from other companies, NGOs or governments to join the hunt for tropical disease treatments at its dedicated institute at Tres Cantos, Spain.

Many NGOs remain sceptical. Michelle Childs, director of policy and advocacy for Medecins Sans Frontieres, says that in China, GSK charges over $3,000 for the antiretroviral Lamivudine in the absence of generic competition, while in Thailand, by comparison, another pharmaceutical company, Abbott, offers the Lopinavir/Ritonavir co-formulation for $500. And as for reinvesting profits, Catherine Tomlinson of the Treatment Action Campaign says, ‘Wouldn’t it simply be better to slash profits and allow for countries themselves to invest in improving health infrastructure? The GSK argument is circular: We charge so much money so that we can give you some of your own money back!’

The most interesting and radical move, however, is that Witty committed GSK to put any chemicals or processes over which it has intellectual property rights that are relevant to finding drugs for neglected diseases into a ‘patent pool’, so they can be explored by other researchers. Explaining this move, Witty said, ‘I think it’s the first time anybody’s really come out and said we’re prepared to start talking to people about pooling our patents to try to facilitate innovation in areas where, so far, there hasn’t been much progress.’ He went on to say …

Continue reading

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”download” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/blog_pharma2_wvisser.pdf”]Pdf[/button] CSR & Pharmaceuticals – Part 2 (blog)

Related websites

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”tick” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/books/the-age-of-responsibility”]Link[/button] The Age of Responsibility (book)

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”tick” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.csrinternational.org”]Link[/button] CSR International (website)

Cite this blog

Visser, W. (2011) CSR & Pharmaceuticals: Big Pharma on Trial – Part 2, Wayne Visser Blog Briefing, 8 June 2011.

Share this page

Share
Posted on

CSR and Pharmaceuticals – Part 1

CSR and Pharmaceuticals:

Big Pharma on Trial – Part 1

Blog by Wayne Visser

Let’s take a look at one of the biggest crises the world still faces: HIV/AIDS. According to the November 2009 UNAIDS report, more than 25 million people have died of AIDS since 1981. The number of people living with HIV has risen from around 8 million in 1990 to 33 million today, and is still growing. Around 67% of people living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa and Africa has over 14 million AIDS orphans. At the end of 2008, women accounted for 50% of all adults living with HIV worldwide. In developing and transitional countries, 9.5 million people are in immediate need of life-saving AIDS drugs; of these, only 4 million (42%) are receiving the drugs.

The topic of drugs presents a good case study in responsiveness (and the lack thereof). In 2001, Oxfam launched a campaign called ‘Cut the Cost’, challenging the pharmaceutical industry to address responsible drug pricing. In the same year, the Indian pharmaceutical company Cipla cut the annual price of anti-retroviral AIDS drugs to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) to $350, as compared with the global industry standard of $1,000, and the Western market price of $10,400. Cipla also announced its intention to allow the South African government to sell eight of its generic AIDS drugs, the patents for which were held by other companies.

MSF put pressure on the five major pharmaceutical companies involved in the UNAIDS Accelerating Access Initiative to match Cipla’s benchmark. And to some extent, they responded. Merck cut the price of its HIV/AIDS treatments for developing countries, including offering Crixivan at $600 and Stocrin at $500. Pfizer offered to supply antifungal medicine at no charge to HIV/AIDS patients in 50 AIDS stricken countries.

Bristol-Myers Squibb announced that it would not prevent generic-drug makers from selling low-cost versions of one of its HIV drugs (Zerit) in Africa. And Glaxo-SmithKline granted a voluntary licence to South African generics producer Aspen, allowing them to share the rights to GSK’s drugs (AZT, 3TC and Combivir) without charge.

So far so good. Apparently the drug companies are quite responsive. Why then, in 2001 (at the same time that they were doing all these good things), did 39 of the largest international pharmaceutical companies take the South African government to court over plans to introduce legislation aimed at easing access to AIDS drugs, arguing that it would infringe their patents and contravene the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement? Justin Forsyth, Oxfam Policy Director, said at the time, ‘This court case demonstrates how powerful drug companies are bullying poor countries just so they can protect their patent rights on lifesaving medicines.’

The pharmaceutical companies quickly realized that they had created a monster. Tens of thousands of people marched in protest all over the world, and 300,000 people from over 130 countries signed a petition against the action. Eventually, following public pressure, as well as pressure from the South African government and the European Parliament, Big Pharma dropped the case …

Continue reading

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”download” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/blog_pharma1_wvisser.pdf”]Pdf[/button] CSR & Pharmaceuticals – Part 1 (blog)

Related websites

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”tick” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/books/the-age-of-responsibility”]Link[/button] The Age of Responsibility (book)

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”tick” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.csrinternational.org”]Link[/button] CSR International (website)

Cite this blog

Visser, W. (2011) CSR & Pharmaceuticals: Big Pharma on Trial – Part 1, Wayne Visser Blog Briefing, 3 June 2011.

Share this page

Share
Posted on

The Ages and Stages of CSR

The Ages and Stages of CSR:

Towards the Future with CSR 2.0

Paper by Wayne Visser

Abstract

This article argues that CSR, as a business, governance and ethics system, has failed. This assumes that success or failure is measured in terms of the net impact (positive or negative) of business on society and the environment. Hence, we need a different kind of CSR if we are to reverse the current direction of many of the world’s most pressing social, environmental and ethical trends. The article reviews business’s historical progress over the Ages and Stages of CSR: moving through the Ages of Greed, Philanthropy, Marketing and Management, using defensive, charitable, promotional and strategic CSR approaches respectively. It then examines the Three Curses of CSR 1.0 (incremental, peripheral and uneconomic), before exploring what CSR might look like in an emerging Age of Responsibility. This new CSR – called systemic or radical CSR, or CSR 2.0 – is based on five principles (creativity, scalability, responsiveness, glocality and circularity) and forms the basis for a new DNA model of responsible business, built around the four elements of value creation, good governance, societal contribution and environmental integrity.

If CSR is the answer, what is the question?

First let me say what I understand by CSR. I take CSR to stand for Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility, rather than Corporate Social Responsibility, but feel free use whichever proxy label you are most comfortable with. My definition is as follows: CSR is the way in which business consistently creates shared value in society through economic development, good governance, stakeholder responsiveness and environmental improvement. Put another way, CSR is an integrated, systemic approach by business that builds, rather than erodes or destroys, economic, social, human and natural capital.

Given this understanding, my usual starting point for any discussion on CSR is to argue that it has failed. I provide the data and arguments to back up this audacious claim in my new book, The Age of Responsibility, but the logic is simple and compelling. A doctor judges his/her success by whether the patient is getting better (healthier) or worse (sicker). Similarly, we should judge the success of CSR by whether our communities and ecosystems are getting better or worse. And while at the micro level – in terms of specific CSR projects and practices – we can show many improvements, at the macro level almost every indicator of our social, environmental and ethical health is in decline.

I am not alone in my assessment. Indeed, Paul Hawken stated in The Ecology of Commerce in 1993 that ‘If every company on the planet were to adopt the best environmental practice of the ‘‘leading’’ companies, the world would still be moving toward sure degradation and collapse.’ Unfortunately, this is still true nearly 20 years later. Jeffrey Hollender, co-founder and former CEO of Seventh Generation, agrees, saying: ‘I believe that the vast majority of companies fail to be ‘‘good’’ corporate citizens, Seventh Generation included. Most sustainability and corporate responsibility programs are about being less bad rather than good. They are about selective and compartmentalized ‘‘programs’’ rather than holistic and systemic change’ …

Continue reading

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”download” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/paper_ages_stages_csr_wvisser.pdf”]Pdf[/button] The Ages & Stages of CSR (paper)

Related pages

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”info” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/books/the-age-of-responsibility”]Page[/button] The Age of Responsibility (book)

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”tick” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.csrinternational.org”]Link[/button] CSR International (website)

Cite this article

Visser, W. (2011) The Ages and Stages of CSR: Towards the Future with CSR 2.0, CSR International Paper Series, No. 3. First published in Social Space 2011.

Share this page

Share
Posted on

The Future of CSOs

The Future of CSOs:

The Many Faces of CSR Activism

Article by Wayne Visser

The third principle of Transformative CSR, or CSR 2.0, is responsiveness. Some of the most important players in the responsiveness game – especially through cross-sector partnerships – are civil society organisations (CSOs, which I prefer rather than the term NGOs).

Reflecting on how this sector is changing in the face of increased calls for responsiveness, I have distinguished 10 ‘Paths to the Future’ for CSR activism. I believe that CSOs acting in the CSR space will increasingly be:

  1. Platforms for transparency – Undertaking investigative exposes & hosting disclosure forums;
  2. Brokers of volunteerism – Providing project opportunities for employee volunteers;
  3. Champions of CSR – Raising awareness and increasing public pressure for CSR;
  4. Advisors of business – Offering consulting services to business on responsibility;
  5. Agents of government – Working with or on behalf of regulatory authorities;
  6. Reformers of policy – Pressuring for government policy reforms to incentivise CSR;
  7. Makers of standards – Developing voluntary standards & inviting business compliance;
  8. Channels for taxes          Receiving and deploying specially earmarked tax revenues;
  9. Partners in solutions – Partnering with business/government to tackle specific issues; and
  10. Catalysts for creativity – Creating social enterprises & supporting social entrepreneurs.

Let’s explore these ‘future faces’ of CSR activism in a little more detail below, drawing on examples from around the world of CSOs emerging roles …

Continue reading

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”download” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/inspiration_future_csos_wvisser.pdf”]Pdf[/button] The Future of CSOs (article)

Related pages

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”info” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/books/the-age-of-responsibility”]Page[/button] The Age of Responsibility (book)

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”tick” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.csrinternational.org”]Link[/button] CSR International (website)

Cite this article

Visser, W. (2011) The Future of CSOs: The Many Faces of CSR Activism, CSR International Inspiration Series, No. 10

Share this page

Share
Posted on

CSR in Nigeria

CSR in Nigeria

Blog by Wayne Visser

A few thoughts after my trip to Lagos last month …

I am not naive enough to believe that CSR heralds a new dawn for Nigeria. The general consensus was that most companies are stuck in the Ages of Philanthropy and Marketing. Nevertheless, CSR has the potential to advance transparency and to create a platform to discuss the ethics of business and government. It also has the potential to be corrupted, which sadly is already happening in some instances where corporate sponsorship of government ‘CSR projects’ is practiced as an indirect form of bribery.

Shell Nigeria’s reputation seems as sullied as ever, 15 years after the Ken Saro Wiwa fiasco. It seems like a viscous cycle of destructive relations. According to Tony Attah, Manager of Sustainable Development and Community Relations, 90% of the oil spills in 2009/10 were as a result of saboteurs, vandals and those trying to steal oil from the pipelines. Also, the Nigerian government takes more than 90% of the earnings of the business through taxes, royalties and their own equities (it has a 55% equity stake in the company).

Of course, there are examples of good practice, such as the Global MOUs between companies and communities, and conservation projects like the Chevron preserved urban forest which I visited. Yet even here, one senses that these are fragile fortifications against a relentless tide of oil-slicked growth and car-jammed urbanisation. I was there during the scheduled first weekend of elections, but these were postponed due to printed ballot papers not arriving in time. The Nigerians take it all in their stride, as if fighting the behemoth of inefficiency is as futile as cursing the manic traffic.

One encouraging initiative is the Social Enterprise Reporting Awards (SERA), run by Trucontact …

Continue reading

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”download” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/blog_nigeria_wvisser.pdf”]Pdf[/button] CSR in Nigeria (blog)

Related websites

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”tick” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/books/the-age-of-responsibility”]Link[/button] The Age of Responsibility (book)

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”tick” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.csrinternational.org”]Link[/button] CSR International (website)

Cite this blog

Visser, W. (2011) CSR in Nigeria, Wayne Visser Blog Briefing, 26 April 2011.

Share this page

Share
Posted on

Nigeria 2011 Notes

08 April 2011

Finally, I made it to Nigeria, a country I expected to visit much sooner than now, given its strategic importance in Africa and CSR. I got back from Lagos via Paris this morning. The CSR training for Trucontact went well and seemed appreciated. My hosts, Ken Egbas and colleagues, were gracious and generous. As it turned out, I saw very little on this first trip, beyond the training venue, my hotel and the crazy traffic in between.

I come away with mixed feelings. Certainly, the raw vitality and aggressive ambition (or is it just survival instinct?) is palatable. And as in so much of Africa, the culture and its people are colourful, hopeful and friendly. But there is also the malaise of powerlessness in the face of endemic corruption and greed among politicians, not to mention the inertia of crumbling state apparatus and economic injustice.

The greatest hope being clung to is rediscovering good, public-serving leaders, who remain a fantasy. The greatest source of faith is a Pentecostal brand of Christianity that gives its followers strength in knowing that God is on the side of the oppressed. What is somewhat depressing is knowing that Nigeria’s hardships are largely self-imposed, inflicted by the power-hungry on the opportunity-starved. The society is culturally robust, but morally and economically weakened by the cancers of raw greed and desperate need.

Share This Page

Share
Share
Share