PR: The contribution for the betterment of society under the Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) could be strengthened and made more effective by adopting a collective approach and resolve by the corporate sector of Pakistan. This endeavor could also play an important role in peacebuilding at community level and cultivate an enabling environment for sustained peace at societal level. The representatives from various renowned corporate organizations shared these views at the ‘Orientation Meeting of Corporate Leaders on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for Wining Hearts and Minds’ organized by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here on Tuesday.
The corporate leaders on the occasion opined that most of the interventions under CSR at present were being carried out in isolation with little social impact and thus, required rethinking, reorientation, and restructuring. In Pakistan, CSR was in its development phase, whereas in the modern and industrialized societies, CSR has graduated to CSR plus, which has effectively turned into social impact investment.
Shafqat Munir, Senior Policy Advisor SDPI, earlier, earlier explained that corporate sector around the world was using CSR plus initiatives for social development and thus, to build the resilience of the communities against conflict and violent extremism.
He said that the corporate leaders needed to take the responsibility and invest more on building resiliencies of the societies and promote peace and harmony. It is the industry, which has direct stake in the society and people and they should divert their CSR investments towards peace building initiatives.
While keeping in view the fragile environment of the country with recurrent threats of terrorism, the corporate leaders shown agreement that the corporate leaders and businesses should start investing in conflict transformation and peace building process with a view of wining hearts and minds.