Need for collaboration with multinationals for effective corporate responsibility
The Senior Manager, Sustainability and Climate Change, Pricewaterhouse Coopers Ghana Limited, Mr Venan Sondo, has called for collaboration with multinational firms and institutions to share knowledge in driving the sustainability of corporate responsibility.
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Mr Sondo opined that the collaboration would enhance the opportunity for other institutions to learn from each other on best ways of handling corporate sustainability to improve national development.
He made the remarks at the UN Global Compact Chief Executive Officers Roundtable on Corporate Sustainability in Ghana.
Mr Sondo said most companies budget huge sums of monies into the activities of corporate social responsibility (CSR), but fail to conduct effective assessment to find out if the objectives for setting those projects are met.
He said effective assessment of CSR is critical in providing companies with long and short results on the impacts of a projects executed for future effective future planning.
Dr Tony Aubynn, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines explained that the UN Global Compact is a leadership platform for the development, implementation and disclosure of responsible and sustainable corporate policies and practices.
Dr Aubynn said the compact was endorsed by chief executives to align business operations and strategies everywhere with 10 universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption.
Ambassador Margit Thomsen of the Royal Danish Embassy said Denmark had instituted a strategy on the theme: “The Right to a Better Life,” which is an all-inclusive way of eradicating poverty, social inequality and injustices by governments, private sectors and development partners.
Ambassador Thomsen said DANIDA had supported the establishment of the Ghana Business Code from 2003 to 2010 to support the private sector to have one voice when communicating business ethics.
She said Ghana was the new Africa with all the challenges and opportunities, and that business will compete not only on price and quality, but also by applying good corporate governance standards and exercising transparency.
Mr Dauglas Kativu, Head of the Global Reporting Initiative, Focal Point South Africa, pointed out that investment and business activity must be sustainable to bring value, not just financially, but also in social, environmental and ethical terms.
He stressed that transparency and access to information were guiding tenets of the UN Global Compact, and that the provision of information gave insight to the investment community, and checked the stock prices and financial statements of a company.