CSR projects are frequently carried out as a cooperative effort; involving external partners can enhance the success and value of the project, and projects can benefit from the experience of local organizations or stakeholders. This is more often the case in other countries than in Germany, since a company in a foreign market is more likely to be dependent on the expertise, contacts or infrastructure of its partners.

There are various partners that might be involved in a CSR initiative:

a) Development partnerships with business organizations/Public-Private Partnerships (PPP)

When companies and organizations involved in development cooperation work together, business interests and development goals converge. Such cooperative arrangements facilitate corporate involvement in developing and emerging countries, while at the same time helping to bring about lasting improvement in local living conditions and economic circumstances. Projects might focus on such areas as training centers, environmentally friendly technologies and workplace safety standards. In Ukraine, for example, the wood processing company Ukrspon, a subsidiary of Overlack Furnier GmbH & Co. KG, joined DEG in investing in a modern boiler installation fueled with wood waste. The investment was linked to the establishment of a training and advisory center for in-company environmental protection. The use of wood waste makes it possible to conserve fossil fuels, reduce dependency on Russian natural gas and lower CO2 emissions.

Further information on PPPs is found under Financing.

b) Business cooperation

As a rule, the purpose of cooperative ventures with suppliers or customers is to solve problems along the value chain. A partnership might focus on such issues as eliminating child labor or maintaining environmental standards. Under the PPP program of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Foreign Trade Association of the German Retail Trade (AVE) worked with GTZ to help German retail suppliers in Asia introduce and develop a jointly developed social standard, the AVE Sector Model for Social Responsibility. This project made a lasting contribution to improving working conditions for suppliers’ employees. It also led to the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), an initiative that provides European trading and production companies with a uniform European monitoring system to ensure that social standards are maintained throughout the global value chain.

c) On-site cooperation

Partnerships encompassing the business sector, policymakers and society at large tend to have a positive effect on local and regional economic conditions, standards of living and stability. Examples include infrastructure initiatives, such as building new hospital wards. In Uganda, the Dutch flower farm Wagagai Ltd. is cooperating with DEG on a PPP project to expand the capacity of the company health center; it will soon provide medical care not only for the company’s 1,100 employees, but also for some 14,000 residents of neighboring communities. The new clinic will focus particularly on preventing HIV/AIDS and caring for those infected with HIV.

d) Interregional cooperation/Multiple stakeholders

Interregional cooperation with governmental or nongovernmental organizations or multi-sectoral networks is helpful in dealing with political and social issues that extend beyond a single region. The BMZ’s PPP projects include a number of such strategic alliances. Their broad base helps them gain more widespread acceptance, making their contribution to improving living conditions and the economic situation particularly long-lasting. They often develop out of smaller, innovative PPP projects such as the joint initiative of GTZ and the German Coffee Association, which resulted in the formulation of an internationally recognized code of conduct for the coffee industry: the Common Code for the Coffee Community (4C).

For more on partner management, click here...