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| Promoting the uptake of Corporate Social Responsibility as a tool for strategic peacebuilding Our work with the private sector in Sri Lanka has shown that stakeholders have different perceptions of and attitudes towards the business community and its social and peacebuilding engagement, ranging from pragmatism to outright mistrust. In order to better understand existing corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in Sri Lanka, we conducted research in order to map current approaches, activities and implementers. Researchers looked at how interviewees defined CSR, the reasons for engagement in it, areas of engagement and the history behind them. This first stage of research focused on big businesses and other groups in Colombo and was then followed by an island-wide survey to ascertain public perceptions of CSR and the role of business in society, then a survey of businesses in 11 districts focusing on how the business community perceives its own role in society and in building peace. This study into public and business perceptions of the role of business in Sri Lanka is part of an overall strategy for engaging Sri Lankan business in peacebuilding. It comes at a time when more and more businesses have begun to realise the importance of this and have launched their own initiatives to support peace, either directly or indirectly. There is evidence that the application of the principles and practices of CSR by companies working in zones of conflict can contribute to better relations between conflicting parties, decrease tensions with stakeholders, address underlying conflict causes and, by extension, contribute to peace. Our final report explains how the business community in Sri Lanka views its role in wider society, how it is currently engaging in CSR, what is broadly understood by CSR and how a more strategic uptake of CSR can be used as a tool for building peace. As well as being a resource for businesses themselves, the report is also targeted at the wider, peacebuilding community, providing suggestions on how to incorporate Sri Lanka’s private sector more strategically in its, and providing an overview of some of the opportunities and challenges involved. Click
here to download a copy of the CSR report (this will open in a new
window). For more information contact
Mais Yacoub Last updated: March 2006 |
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