Companies must be responsible corporate citizens

Accra, Nov. 23, GNA - Nana Dr. S. K. B. Asante, President of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, on Wednesday told multinational mining and petroleum companies in Africa that they could not shirk their social responsibility towards the environment and the people affected by their operations.

He said whereas central governments of African states clearly had a duty to ensure good health and safe environment for all its citizens, international companies operating on the continent simply could not hide behind the governments' responsibility and ignore stark poverty, ill health or environmental devastation in their areas of operation. Nana Asante made these remarks at the opening of a three-day Fourth Learning Forum on the United Nations Global Compact (GC) organized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to share and discuss challenges and lessons learned in implementing the GC principles and partnership for development.

The GC concept was initiated in 1999 by UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan on a 10-point principle, drawn from some UN and other international protocols, focusing on a set of core values including human rights, good governance, anti-corruption, good labour standards and environmental protection.

The forum, the first being held in sub-Saharan Africa, was expected to empower participants, including managers of corporate social responsibility managers, human resource, civil society and labour representatives to become agents of change within their organizations. It was also to offer networking opportunity among experts and practitioners in the field of corporate citizenship worldwide to contribute to the success of the GC in Africa.

Nana Asante observed that even though the operations of mining and petroleum companies adversely affect the environment, source of income and the health of the local communities, the companies often point to their financial contributions to the coffers of the central governments and contend that it was the governments' responsibility to satisfy the economic and social needs of the local people.

=93It is my view that this issue cannot be resolved by finger pointing,=94 he said.

He called for an imaginative collaboration between government, company and local people to ensure that the locality and its people received some of the benefit of corporate business.

Nana Asante recalled that the GC concept, which was first initiated 30 years ago but abandoned, had been revived again under the inspiration of Mr Annan, whom he described as the foremost diplomat of Africa. He expressed the hope that the meeting would provide an excellent opportunity to share relevant experiences on how to ensure effective corporate responsibility across Africa.

Mr Allan Kyerematen, Minister of Trade, Industry and President's Special Initiative, said whereas in many parts of the world, the international business community had responded positively to the GC, in other parts, especially in Africa, its implementation had been confronted with some serious challenges.

He observed that in Ghana for example, the response from the business community and the large corporate sector in particular had been limited in scope and substance, saying, 93I will not be surprised if the experience in other African countries is the same.=94

Mr Kyerematen, who stood in for President John Agyekum Kufuor at the forum, said the critical challenge confronting Ghana and other African countries in the implementation of the GC was to infuse a new sense of dynamism into the GC's development objectives and implementation arrangements by adopting practical and innovative approaches.

=93For the corporate sector to be fully engaged in the GC, the GC must be seen to be a rewarding business proposition for them and an important source of brand credibility that advances the interests of both their shareholders and customers,=94 he said.

The minister noted that the commitment of the corporate sector was usually skewed towards a business reward paradigm, which sought to generate enough revenue to pay dividends to shareholders and to satisfy customers to the detriment of the social and ethical paradigms, which the GC seemed to propose.

=93I believe that the GC must be underpinned by all three inter-related paradigms: 85the ethical paradigm, the social paradigm and the business reward paradigm.=94

Mr Kyeremanteng said models that should be examined and explored by the bigger players in the corporate sector under the GC should be toward integrated rural communities and other vulnerable groups into the global production by promoting inter-firm linkages and collaborations between companies and small and micro-enterprise, access to micro-credit and micro-finance and adoption of employee shareholding arrangements. Mr Christophe Bahuet, UNDP Resident Representative said as of Wednesday, 2,000 companies from more than 80 countries as well as many international labour and civil society organizations were engaged in the GC.

This, he said, was testimony to the wide acceptance of the GC's proposal that economic activities must take place and would only do better in decent and healthy environmental conditions. Over 100 participants are attending the forum under the theme: =93The Future of the GC: Innovation, Collaboration and Accountability.=94

Among those present was Ms Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former Chair of the UNHCR and Mr Klaus Leisinger, Special Advisor to UN Secretary-General on the GC, who represented Mr. Kofi Annan. 23 Nov. 06