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Prof. Ike Ehie, Program Co-Chair of the CSR conference in Lagos, Nigeria

‘Cooperate’ and ‘partner’ instead of ‘give’

Companies should not just invest in CSR projects in Africa for PR benefits, but should aim beyond ‘looking good in the public eye’, says Ike Ehie, Professor of Management at the Kansas State University (US). Prof. Ehie and Dr. Myra Gordon are the initiators of one of the biggest international CSR conferences ever held in Africa: ‘CSR in Sub-Sahara Africa’, in Lagos, Nigeria, from December 12 to 14.

Prof. Ehie is the primary contact for a conference that will be one of the biggest platforms for the exchange of CSR ideas and best practices of this year. The conference is a next step in a cooperation between the University of Lagos in Nigeria and Kansas State University in the U.S., that started with a USAID grant. After four years of strengthening the Lagos university’s Faculty of Business Administration, professor Ehie is now looking forward to an exciting opportunity to discuss and share successful CSR practices in Africa.

Prof Ehie: “We are bringing together researchers, corporations, practitioners and local African organisations. They have a tremendous amount of combined knowledge and ideas about how CSR can help alleviate poverty, lead to social entrepreneurships, and assist with proper governance of the democratic system.”

What is the conference all about?

“There are about 40 paper presentations and panel discussions that will definitely please the 150+ participants of this conference. The topics will cover areas such corporate social investment, sustainability issues in CSR, corporate governance, poverty alleviation, corruption, climate change and other environmental issues and social entrepreneurship.”

The conference theme is ‘CSR for Sustainable Economic Development’. Why sustainable?

“CSR was developed in western countries and many companies have embraced it as a way of doing business. For example, companies are now going green to save the environment as a business imperative. In sub-sahara Africa we do not have a good picture of what is going on. To many, CSR is still a one-way street of giving, but the idea of the conference is to show how CSR can actually be a strategic initiative to develop communities in a sustainable way; supplying a fishing rod rather than handing out fish. ´Sustainable´ means that the local African communities are supported to develop themselves.”

How can companies achieve this?

“First: by dealing with CSR on a higher – boardroom – level in companies, and to be able to position it as a strategic activity. Second: by having a symbiotic relationship between African communities and the companies that wish to engage in meaningful and sustainable CSR projects. ‘Cooperate’ and ‘partner’ instead of just ‘give’. The conference will show that sustainable CSR often is based on education and sharing of expertise, not on just giving money. The best papers and presentations and the most valuable insights and practices will be published in a book that will serve as a blueprint for companies that want their CSR initiative to really make a difference. In that way, this important conference will have a lasting effect, long after the conference in Lagos has ended.”

Comments

Ayo Adediji

15 December 2011 18:42

In your front page information, Lagos was described as Nigeria's Capital when it hasn't in twenty years.
Secondly, you assumed everyone knows what CSR stands for and did not bother to tell us what that initials stand for.
Now I really applaud Professor Ehie and his colleagues for their efforts in this area.
I'm going to comment specifically about Nigeria as a country but this easily applies to most countries of Africa with few exceptions.
This is not a poor country by many measures.
The political leadership or should I say leaderless makes it as if it is.
There are simple things that the governments at all levels could do that should alleviate suffering of masses but for what ever the reason, they seem handicapped or fail to do anything.
Let's look at traffic problems that paralizes most urban cities in Nigeria, Lagos, Ibadan etc. The inmate seems to run the asylum. The transport vehicles or kiakia buses or danfo disregard the traffic rules and common sense. Some told me there are no such things anymore.
The police officers are on the road not to enforce the rules but to collect bribes openly disregarding the rule of law. The rule of law is being brought into disrepute in a country where it used be strictly enforced when I was a boy. In any other modern country, this would be a crisis that would have forced a government out of the office.
The half hour journey takes half a day and the authorities are clueless about solving the problems.
There are road blocks by police at every half a kilometer on the highway.
And don't get me going about the condition of the roads.
Nigeria has been driving on the right side of the road since 1969, yet most drivers do not know that they need to drive on the right hand side and leave the left side as a passing lane. This often causes unnecessary traffic on the highways when two huge transport vehicles drove side by side and the following vehicles are blocked with no way to pass them.
Children who should be in school are on the streets selling wares at any age; sometimes risking their lifes daily on the busy roads with drivers who do not obey the laws of the road.
Most citizens except influential onces are on survival mode daily.
I can go on for pages and still would not touch a significant aspect of the problems.
Lagos Airport is a shameful entry for natives as well as visitors to enter a modern city not to speak of impression for a first timer to Nigeria.
Nigerian leaders and well-offs seek personaon healthcare needs in Europe, Asia, Meddle East or the United States and often died there while the Nigerian health care system are in shambles.
Until the leadership of the country or countries of Africa woke up to lead, any attempts to prepare solutions that work elsewhere would not work in Nigeria and any African country.
After more than fifty years of independence, we still blame the West for our problems.
I wish Professor Ehie and his colleagues good luck in their undertakings, but Western private companies would not come to invest and create jobs needed by Nigerians and other Africans until we provide assurances that we are ready to take our place in the new global order.