OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development
Open access peer-reviewed journal
Inserting Extant Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Activities of International Oil Companies (IOCs) in the Niger Delta Region (NDR) in Carroll’s Pyramid of CSR: A Case of generalizability
Ogechi Okoro
Waikato Institute of Technology,
Centre for Business, Information Technology and Enterprise
Tristram Street, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand
Volume 10, Issue 03, Pg. 11-22, 2017.
Abstract: In this paper, the author aims to draw on his thesis to discuss extant CSR activities of IOCs in the NDR. The paper presents a compelling insight on the CSR activities of select IOCs in the NDR and how such activities identify in Carroll’s Pyramid of CSR for the purposes of relevance and generalisability. The issue of equitable distribution of oil resources has been very contentious in the NDR within the last couple of decades and its implications can hardly be exaggerated. The paper confirms the salient role of some IOCs in the provision of social welfare packages and the overall development of the region. Furthermore, the paper examines the Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMOU) framework, an approach considered as “best practice’’ model by IOCs in the region. The model combines IOCs’ expertise with local stakeholder intelligence to achieve the desired results. The author presents a summary of the evolution of CSR in the NDR underscoring the significance of localized “best practice“ approach. The paper concludes by highlighting the limitations of CSR in the sustainable development of the NDR.
Keywords: Business, Corporate Social Responsibility, Society, Stakeholder, and Sustainability.
Built-in Sustainable CSR Program in a Microfinance Institution: Experience of ASA Philippines Foundation
Md Kamrul Hasan Tarafder a, Barbara Custodio b
a,b ASA Philippines Foundation, Pasig City 1605, Philippines.
Volume 10, Issue 03, Pg. 23-36, 2017.
Abstract: Brief History
ASA Philippines Foundation is a not-for-profit institution specializing in microfinance. It was conceptualized by Kamrul H. Tarafder and Ambassador Howard Q. Dee. It started operations in August 2004 with financial seed capital from the Assisi Development Foundation and the Ninoy & Cory Aquino Foundation. In 2007, PLDT Smart Foundation joined as a third benefactor. Since then, ASA Philippines has not obtained any other grant and, unlike other foundations, it pledges not to source any more grants.
A Clear Vision to be Sustainable and Incorporate CSR
“In the most cost-effective and sustainable manner”….this was clearly stated in ASA Philippines’ vision statement. The Foundation’s management set out to achieve break-even in the shortest possible time. Businesses tend to set out 5-year management and profitability plans. The Foundation’s management reasoned that since ASA Philippines is a development organization that is not required to pay full taxes to the Philippine government, then why shouldn’t they aim to achieve break-even in a shorter time frame, say 3 years? In fact, ASA Philippines did achieve profitability within 3 years. What’s more, it accomplished this despite setting aside a high provision for possible loan losses. The Philippines tends to experience devastating natural calamities from time to time. When the Foundation’s clients are hit by these calamities, they are often unable to pay their loans on time, if at all. It was important for the Foundation to have the flexibility to respond to clients in their time of need, while at the same time maintaining continuous normal corporate operations, thus the decision to allocate conservative provisioning.
Organizational Growth
As of December 2016, ASA Philippines has established 850 branches across the country and employed 5,964 fulltime staff. It is serving 1,273,136 active borrowers with a portfolio of US$180 million. Eleven years from inception, the Foundation became the 1st MFI in the country to achieve a milestone of over 1,000,000 active borrowers. ASA Philippines is now the country’s largest MFI in terms of borrowers & assets. It holds the distinction of being the first MFI to establish a presence in all 82 provinces of the country. In 2016, it was named as the Philippines’ most outstanding MFI.
Balancing Financial Sustainability with Achieving the Foundation’s Mission
For NGOs, pursuing their corporate mission while trying to attain financial sustainability is quite the challenge. Many NGOs, particularly those that deal with low-income communities, are unable to generate sufficient income and/or manage their expenses within their limited income. They are thus forced to rely on external sources of funds such as grants.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Programs
Since the beginning the Foundation started a CSR program albeit at a smaller scale, however, as soon as the company broke even, it increased its CSR programs. The following are some of the current CSR activities:
- Disaster Relief – Typhoons, Fire, Flood, Drought, Rehabilitation Grants, Others
- Health Care – Medical Missions, Cataract/Pterygium Operations, Cleft Lip/Palate Operations, Hospitalization Benefits, Death Benefits, Bloodletting Drive, Water and Sanitation Financing Program, Persons with Disability Program, Child Feeding
- Education – College Scholarship Program, Out of School Youth
- Livelihood – Business Development Training and Marketing Support, Employment of Relatives of Clients, Shari’ah Financing, Star Coke Program
- Housing – Housing Finance
- Environment – Tree Planting, Urban Gardening
As of December 2016 the Foundation spent US$15,000,000 over the last 12.5 years which benefited a million individuals.
Conclusion
Is it possible for an end-user development institution, particularly one that deals with low-income communities, to achieve its corporate mission without relying on grant funding? The conventional wisdom is that it probably is not possible. ASA Philippines Foundation, an institution that deals with financial services for the poor, has however proven otherwise. It was able to design an expanded, sustainable CSR program into its corporate mission while at the same time achieving financial sustainability. Today, approximately 5% of its gross income or 15% of its net income is devoted to CSR activities.
ASA Philippines Foundation just needed seed capital to start its operations. Though it is unconventional, the Foundation has subsequently politely declined all offers of grant funding. The program it has designed is sustainable. Given the challenges associated with relying on grant funding especially during tough economic times, ASA Philippines has excised grants out of the equation. It is doable.
Keywords: Breakeven, Mission, Planning, Unconventional, Vision
Characterization of village chicken production system in Jimma and Ilu Aba Bora zones, South Western Ethiopia
Saba Haile a and Kasa Biratu b
a,b Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Jimma Agricultural Research Center,
P.O.Box 192, Jimma, Ethiopia.
Volume 10, Issue 03, Pg. 37-50, 2017.
Abstract: The study was conducted in highland, midland and lowland agro-ecological zones of Jimma and Ilu Aba Bora zones selected districts the objectives were to characterize village chicken production and identify the major constraints. A total of 240 chicken rearing smallholder farmers were interviewed to collect the required information using a semi-structured questionnaire. The chicken production system in the study areas was scavenging with regular supplementation of the little amount of feed. The average flock size of chicken per household was 10.05. About 33%, 55% and 12 % of smallholder farmers were provided feed for their chickens once, twice and three times a day respectively. Most of the farmers 74% of the respondents do not have a separate house but provided night time rest in different places: in the living house 24.6%, kitchen 29.1, veranda 15.4 and animal barn 5%. The average age at first mating for cockerel and pullet were reported 6.02 and 6.15 months respectively. The average age of hen at first egg laying was 6.74 months. The overall average number of clutches was 3.64 times per year per hen. The length of the single clutch was 3.4 weeks. The average numbers of egg production per clutch were 13.19 and number of eggs set to a broody hen for incubation was 11.4%. The average hatchability of eggs and survival rate of chick up to 8 weeks were 79.4% and 47.7% respectively. All of the respondents in the study areas were not identify the specific name of the disease but reported the clinical signs. Most of the farmers (89.5%) were reported a high incidence of diseases occurs the wet season. About (91.7%) of the farmers were treated their sick chickens by using of traditional medicine. Farmers were reported different Predators such as black kite (29.2%), mongoose (28.8%), wild cat (20%), dog (7%), Cat (9.2%), Baboon (3.8%) and Fox (2%) which plays a role for chicken loss. Constraints in village chicken production system were prioritized the disease (35.8%), predators (18.8%), lack of veterinary services (17.9%), feed shortage (11.7%), lack of proper house (8.8%) and unstable prices (7%).Therefore, improvement should be need to design veterinary services, chicken management (feeding and housing) and identification and conservation of the best ecotype in the area. Finally, evaluation, demonstration and promotion of exotic chicken breeds that can fit the local feeding and management condition will be necessary.
Key words: characterization, village chicken, production system, constraints.
Usage of Child Car Safety Seat in Qatar: Behaviors, Knowledge, and Attitudes
Esmat A. Zaidan
Department of International Affairs, College of Arts and Sciences,
Qatar University, Doha, Qatar.
Volume 10, Issue 03, Pg. 51-58, 2017.
Abstract: Road safety is a significant public health issue in the State of Qatar resulting in a huge humanitarian suffering for individuals, families, society and the government. Arab Gulf countries have a higher road accident fatality rate, highest is in Qatar, compared to North America and European countries. Qatar residents are five times more likely to die in vehicle accidents than from a stroke, representing the highest ratio in the world. The number of vehicle accidents has outpaced the country’s population growth over the past 18 years. Average of 65 percent of deaths in Qatar, are among children aged 14 and younger are caused by road accidents. Fifty-four percent of all deaths among children under the age of four in Qatar is caused by traffic accidents. Such death rate in the country is three times higher than the global average among children. Qatar National Vision 2030 aims at reducing road accidents and improve safety through a holistic strategy of raised awareness, better safety measures and firmer laws that achieve several fundamental and crucial objectives. Improved protection of children and young people who are significantly overrepresented in fatality statistics has been identified as a basic objective for the country’s’ national vision. The use of seatbelts and child restraints while travelling in a vehicle has been identified by the Qatari National Road Safety Strategy 2013-2022 as one of the primary ways of reducing death and injury. The national strategy will introduce high priority legislation on seatbelts in the rear of vehicles and the use of child restraints as a main action for seatbelt use.
Deaths due to car accidents can be considerably reduced by utilizing Baby/child seats and booster seats, for babies, toddlers and older children. The use of safety seats, that are specifically designed to guard babies or children in the occurrence of a crash, can decrease the risk of death among infants by 71 percent and among toddlers by 54 percent. Furthermore, the use of car safety seats can also decrease the threat of injury by 59 percent for children between the ages of four to seven. As with education around seat belt usage in Qatar, education campaigns on car safety seat usage must use a bottom-up rather than a top-down approach in order for them to be successful. In other words, current Qatar parental behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes about car safety seats should be studied as a basis for development of appropriate educational interventions related to their usage, rather than government or other interventions that have not been grounded in research that has been conducted on the residential population.
In order to design effective and comprehensive awareness and educational campaigns targeting parents and future parents in Qatar, it is necessary to understand current parental behaviors, knowledge and attitudes around car safety seat use or non-use. With a clear understanding of behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes it will be possible to develop educational interventions that will have the greatest potential to impact behaviors. In this study, the usage of car seats within the residence of Qatar with children currently under the age of 12 is evaluated in order to develop insight into this safety-related behavior that effects vulnerable road users (young children). The main objective of the study is to provide a comprehensive understanding of road safety culture and norms related to car seat usage by Qatari residents, a research topic that has not formerly been considered in the State of Qatar, in order to inform effective and comprehensive interventions to embolden car seat use, both legislative and educational. To achieve the study objective, a survey instrument was designed and utilized. The survey included a set of questions related to demographics (nationality, age, age of children, education level, etc.), a set of questions to assess parents’ car safety behaviors, a set of questions to assess parental knowledge of child passenger safety, and a set of questions to assess attitudes regarding the use of child safety seats. Since both Nationals and expats living in the country drive on the roads and the Qatar government is concerned with the safety of all children living in Qatar, a broad sample of Doha demographic was covered. The data was collected from a variety of parents living in Doha, such as Qatari nationals, Arab expats, European and North American expats, Asian expats, and others living in the country.
The study revealed low utilization rates of child safety seats amongst Qatari citizens, Asian and Arab expats. For those reported the usage of child safety seats, the percentage decreases with each additional child, and as the age of the child increases. It was found that despite parents acknowledging their substantial benefits for in-vehicle child protection, the mainstream behavior is to not use a child safety seat. The societal norm was also not to use safety seats. Furthermore, several behaviors were found to be associated with the use of safety seats as the use of seat belt by parents. This may indicate that the creation of mandatory car seat usage legislation in Qatar would not necessarily translate to compliance, as current seat belt law is disregarded. Another research recommendation is that immediate intervention research take place as it is vital to increase children safety seat usage in Qatar. An understanding of what would oblige more parents to use safety car seats is crucial.
Keywords: public health, road accidents, safety car seat, Qatar, awareness campaigns, survey.