Allafrica
By Ebenezer T. Hanson, 25 June 2012
The topic above is likely to elicit this question, thus, "What has Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) got to do with Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)?" It arises as a result of not taking time to identify the strangeness in the familiarity of things. But UT Holdings and its subsidiaries such as UT Bank are demonstrating in an indisputable manner that it is possible to employ CSR as an instrument to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Mrs Sophia Lissah, UT Holdings' Media & Public Relations Manager, the brain shepherding the CSR programes, discloses in an interview that although UT does not dismiss philanthropic acts such as donations to needy institutions, it concentrates more on programmes which aim at building capacities and entrepreneurial development of beneficiaries as well as contributing to achieving the MDGs.
In her view, "Corporate Social Responsibility goes beyond philanthropic acts such as donation to orphanages. It's part of our business to give to society; we believe in helping and developing small and medium scale businesses to become like the UTs and similar companies."
Corporate Social Responsibility is a view or concept that once organisations work in society and also depend on it for survival they have a duty to also pay back to society or alleviate some of the problems which confront the society. It is expected that if organisations cannot meet the needs of the entire society they must make an impact on their immediate communities.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that all United Nations (UN) member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. The goals are eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and empowering women; and reducing child mortality rates. Others are improving maternal health; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing a global partnership for development.
UT, says Mrs Lissah, has been organising a number of financial literacy clinics and workshops for clients and prospective clients of the Bank. The clinics take the form of going to the market and dramatising on a financial topic, for example, savings. According to her, in collaboration with German International Corporation (GIZ), a health screening for participants goes on alongside the financial clinic. In 2010, twelve clinics were held at different markets including Makola, Abossey Okai, Kaneshie, Nima, Madina and Tema. Others are Takoradi, Cape Coast, Tarkwa, Sunyani, Obuasi and Kumasi. She recalls that last year the topic for the clinic was savings.
"The purpose for the clinic was to educate the market women and men about the importance of savings but at the same we are also helping to reduce poverty, and therefore meeting the MDG 1 which deals with eradication of poverty. The health screening exercises also tie in with MDG 6 which seeks to reduce HIV/AIDS and other diseases," she stresses.
The financial workshops bring together customers and potential customers who are educated by resource persons on particular topics. For instance, previous workshops have looked at topics like 'Saving to Build Capital', 'Responsible Borrowing' and 'Customer Service'. These were held in Accra, Tema, Takoradi and Kumasi; the health screening was also not left out. The financial literacy clinic is also featured on Citi FM and Viasat 1.
"Such clinics and workshops are important because we realised that it is in these areas that many of these small businesses have huge challenges. They may be looking for assistance but they do not have the proof. Such programmes help them to meet those challenges," Mrs Lissah elucidates.
"The occasional blood donations also go to reduce child mortality; don't forget that is in harmony with MDG 4," she reminds me.
Pink Ball and Pledge Pink Walk is also another CSR programme which borders on the MDG 5, which seeks to improve maternal health. A collaborative effort with the Cancer Society of Ghana which started in 2010, the programme seeks to raise awareness about the cancer and to raise funds for cancer treatment. Coming October, each of the UT branches is expected to raise funds which will be used to acquire mobile clinics, each of which is said to cost $ 80,000.00. The target is to raise $150,000.00
Last year, the Cancer awareness month was marked with a lot of pink. All the offices within the UT group had a touch of pink and staff dressed in something pink especially on Fridays. The 2nd edition of Pink Ball organised by UT was held on November 5, 2011. The Holding was partnered by GIZ, Cancer Society of Ghana, the Chiropractic without Borders and other individuals.
In another development, UT Bank presented a cheque of GHC 14,750.00 to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital Cancer Unit/Cancer Society of Ghana in September 2011 for the treatment of 18 cancer patients: GHC7, 600.00 and GHC 7,150.00 went to the Radiotherapy and Surgical sections of the Hospital respectively.
The Chairman of UT, Mr Joseph Nsonamoah, will not want to be left out in the scheme of activities of CSR. According to UT's Media & Public Relations Manager, the Chair has a programme dubbed 'Chairman's Christmas Outreach' in which food is distributed freely by staff to the needy on the streets. Last year, 2011, the programme occurred on Sunday, December 25 in Kumasi. "Staff felt excited participating in the programme as they provided for the needy," Mrs Lissah futher discloses.
She discloses that UT is also partnering Enablis, a Canadian entrepreneurial NGO, to help identify potential businesses and help them grow. Enablis focuses on driving measurable social and economic development by supporting entrepreneurs.
Beyond these activities, UT engages in voluntary activities. For example, this year, the Management and staff of UT Bank spent GHC7,000 to fete staff and students of Akropong School the Blind on Valentine's Day as part of the bank's corporate social responsibility.
The staff and students of the Akropong School the Blind expressed joy after the team from UT Bank, in collaboration with volunteers of the United Way Ghana, Retired Armed Forces Wives Association (RAFOWA), gave the school a face-lift.
The UT Bank team scrubbed the compound and bathrooms of the school, painted most of the school blocks and the staff bungalows and replaced all old mosquito nets with new ones. Mrs Lissah believes the Bank's initiative would go a long way to address some of the problems facing the school.
She said together with United Way, UT has also made donations to Help Age Ghana and Women Training Institute at Madina.
She dismisses the notion that UT engages in CSR to obtain favours from government. She pointedly asks, "We have been doing this (CSR) for all these years, but have we won any favour from government?" She adds, "UT is an indigenous bank and we know our environment and the people we are working with and what they go through, hence this is what we do to make life easier or directing them on the right path."
Commenting on their award as the Second Best Bank in Corporate Social Responsibility at the 11th Annual Banking Awards which was held recently, Mrs Lissah thanked Ghanaians in general and customers in particular for acknowledging their work, believing in them and keeping faith with them. "We promise to serve them because they deserve better banking services."
There are two schools of thought on CSR, one argues for it while the other opposes it. Those who support CSR are of the view that since large corporations create many social problems, they should attempt to address and solve them. They go further to criticise the production, marketing, accounting, and environmental practices of corporations. They suggest that corporations can do a better job of producing quality, safe products, and in conducting their operations in an open and honest manner.
There is also the "self-interest" position. This is a long-term perspective that suggests corporations should conduct themselves in such a manner in the present as to assure themselves of a favorable operating environment in the future. It holds that companies must look beyond the short-term, bottom-line perspective and realize that investments in the society today will reap benefits in the future.
Some suggest that businesses should assume social responsibilities because they are among the few private entities that have the resources to do so. The corporate world has some of the brightest minds in the world, and it possesses tremendous financial resources. Thus, businesses should utilize some of their human and financial capital in order to make the world a better place.
Milton Friedman (1970), an American economist, is arguably the leading opponent of CSR. He argued that, the primary responsibility of business was to make profit for its owners, albeit while complying with the law. According to him, the self-interested actions of millions of participants in free markets will, from a utilitarian perspective, lead to positive outcomes for society. If the operation of the free market cannot solve a social problem, it becomes the responsibility of government, not business, to address the issue.
The competitive argument recognizes the fact that addressing social issues comes at a cost to business. To the extent that businesses internalise the costs of socially responsible actions, they hurt competitive position relative to other businesses.
Finally, some argue that those in business are ill-equipped to address social problems. This "capability" argument suggests that business executives and managers are typically well trained in the ways of finance, marketing, and operations management, but not well versed to deal with complex societal problems. Thus, they do not have the knowledge or skills needed to deal with social issues. This view suggests that corporate involvement in social issues may actually make the situation worse.
By Ebenezer T. Hanson, 25 June 2012
The topic above is likely to elicit this question, thus, "What has Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) got to do with Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)?" It arises as a result of not taking time to identify the strangeness in the familiarity of things. But UT Holdings and its subsidiaries such as UT Bank are demonstrating in an indisputable manner that it is possible to employ CSR as an instrument to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Mrs Sophia Lissah, UT Holdings' Media & Public Relations Manager, the brain shepherding the CSR programes, discloses in an interview that although UT does not dismiss philanthropic acts such as donations to needy institutions, it concentrates more on programmes which aim at building capacities and entrepreneurial development of beneficiaries as well as contributing to achieving the MDGs.
In her view, "Corporate Social Responsibility goes beyond philanthropic acts such as donation to orphanages. It's part of our business to give to society; we believe in helping and developing small and medium scale businesses to become like the UTs and similar companies."
Corporate Social Responsibility is a view or concept that once organisations work in society and also depend on it for survival they have a duty to also pay back to society or alleviate some of the problems which confront the society. It is expected that if organisations cannot meet the needs of the entire society they must make an impact on their immediate communities.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that all United Nations (UN) member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. The goals are eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and empowering women; and reducing child mortality rates. Others are improving maternal health; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing a global partnership for development.
UT, says Mrs Lissah, has been organising a number of financial literacy clinics and workshops for clients and prospective clients of the Bank. The clinics take the form of going to the market and dramatising on a financial topic, for example, savings. According to her, in collaboration with German International Corporation (GIZ), a health screening for participants goes on alongside the financial clinic. In 2010, twelve clinics were held at different markets including Makola, Abossey Okai, Kaneshie, Nima, Madina and Tema. Others are Takoradi, Cape Coast, Tarkwa, Sunyani, Obuasi and Kumasi. She recalls that last year the topic for the clinic was savings.
"The purpose for the clinic was to educate the market women and men about the importance of savings but at the same we are also helping to reduce poverty, and therefore meeting the MDG 1 which deals with eradication of poverty. The health screening exercises also tie in with MDG 6 which seeks to reduce HIV/AIDS and other diseases," she stresses.
The financial workshops bring together customers and potential customers who are educated by resource persons on particular topics. For instance, previous workshops have looked at topics like 'Saving to Build Capital', 'Responsible Borrowing' and 'Customer Service'. These were held in Accra, Tema, Takoradi and Kumasi; the health screening was also not left out. The financial literacy clinic is also featured on Citi FM and Viasat 1.
"Such clinics and workshops are important because we realised that it is in these areas that many of these small businesses have huge challenges. They may be looking for assistance but they do not have the proof. Such programmes help them to meet those challenges," Mrs Lissah elucidates.
"The occasional blood donations also go to reduce child mortality; don't forget that is in harmony with MDG 4," she reminds me.
Pink Ball and Pledge Pink Walk is also another CSR programme which borders on the MDG 5, which seeks to improve maternal health. A collaborative effort with the Cancer Society of Ghana which started in 2010, the programme seeks to raise awareness about the cancer and to raise funds for cancer treatment. Coming October, each of the UT branches is expected to raise funds which will be used to acquire mobile clinics, each of which is said to cost $ 80,000.00. The target is to raise $150,000.00
Last year, the Cancer awareness month was marked with a lot of pink. All the offices within the UT group had a touch of pink and staff dressed in something pink especially on Fridays. The 2nd edition of Pink Ball organised by UT was held on November 5, 2011. The Holding was partnered by GIZ, Cancer Society of Ghana, the Chiropractic without Borders and other individuals.
In another development, UT Bank presented a cheque of GHC 14,750.00 to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital Cancer Unit/Cancer Society of Ghana in September 2011 for the treatment of 18 cancer patients: GHC7, 600.00 and GHC 7,150.00 went to the Radiotherapy and Surgical sections of the Hospital respectively.
The Chairman of UT, Mr Joseph Nsonamoah, will not want to be left out in the scheme of activities of CSR. According to UT's Media & Public Relations Manager, the Chair has a programme dubbed 'Chairman's Christmas Outreach' in which food is distributed freely by staff to the needy on the streets. Last year, 2011, the programme occurred on Sunday, December 25 in Kumasi. "Staff felt excited participating in the programme as they provided for the needy," Mrs Lissah futher discloses.
She discloses that UT is also partnering Enablis, a Canadian entrepreneurial NGO, to help identify potential businesses and help them grow. Enablis focuses on driving measurable social and economic development by supporting entrepreneurs.
Beyond these activities, UT engages in voluntary activities. For example, this year, the Management and staff of UT Bank spent GHC7,000 to fete staff and students of Akropong School the Blind on Valentine's Day as part of the bank's corporate social responsibility.
The staff and students of the Akropong School the Blind expressed joy after the team from UT Bank, in collaboration with volunteers of the United Way Ghana, Retired Armed Forces Wives Association (RAFOWA), gave the school a face-lift.
The UT Bank team scrubbed the compound and bathrooms of the school, painted most of the school blocks and the staff bungalows and replaced all old mosquito nets with new ones. Mrs Lissah believes the Bank's initiative would go a long way to address some of the problems facing the school.
She said together with United Way, UT has also made donations to Help Age Ghana and Women Training Institute at Madina.
She dismisses the notion that UT engages in CSR to obtain favours from government. She pointedly asks, "We have been doing this (CSR) for all these years, but have we won any favour from government?" She adds, "UT is an indigenous bank and we know our environment and the people we are working with and what they go through, hence this is what we do to make life easier or directing them on the right path."
Commenting on their award as the Second Best Bank in Corporate Social Responsibility at the 11th Annual Banking Awards which was held recently, Mrs Lissah thanked Ghanaians in general and customers in particular for acknowledging their work, believing in them and keeping faith with them. "We promise to serve them because they deserve better banking services."
There are two schools of thought on CSR, one argues for it while the other opposes it. Those who support CSR are of the view that since large corporations create many social problems, they should attempt to address and solve them. They go further to criticise the production, marketing, accounting, and environmental practices of corporations. They suggest that corporations can do a better job of producing quality, safe products, and in conducting their operations in an open and honest manner.
There is also the "self-interest" position. This is a long-term perspective that suggests corporations should conduct themselves in such a manner in the present as to assure themselves of a favorable operating environment in the future. It holds that companies must look beyond the short-term, bottom-line perspective and realize that investments in the society today will reap benefits in the future.
Some suggest that businesses should assume social responsibilities because they are among the few private entities that have the resources to do so. The corporate world has some of the brightest minds in the world, and it possesses tremendous financial resources. Thus, businesses should utilize some of their human and financial capital in order to make the world a better place.
Milton Friedman (1970), an American economist, is arguably the leading opponent of CSR. He argued that, the primary responsibility of business was to make profit for its owners, albeit while complying with the law. According to him, the self-interested actions of millions of participants in free markets will, from a utilitarian perspective, lead to positive outcomes for society. If the operation of the free market cannot solve a social problem, it becomes the responsibility of government, not business, to address the issue.
The competitive argument recognizes the fact that addressing social issues comes at a cost to business. To the extent that businesses internalise the costs of socially responsible actions, they hurt competitive position relative to other businesses.
Finally, some argue that those in business are ill-equipped to address social problems. This "capability" argument suggests that business executives and managers are typically well trained in the ways of finance, marketing, and operations management, but not well versed to deal with complex societal problems. Thus, they do not have the knowledge or skills needed to deal with social issues. This view suggests that corporate involvement in social issues may actually make the situation worse.
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