A Win-Win Partnership for Social Good
Nishant Pandey
Country Director, American India Foundation
The genesis of American India Foundation (AIF) lies in the leadership demonstrated by corporate leaders and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs in the USA, in response to a call by the former US President Bill Clinton in the aftermath of the Gujarat earthquake in 2001. Resources and support were mobilised quickly, primarily led by the business leaders of Indian origin, for relief and rehabilitation of the Gujarat earthquake victims. Since then AIF has been guided by humanitarian values coupled with corporate principles of trust, transparency and efficiency and has gone on to benefit not just from the support of US-based Corporate leaders of Indian origin but also from India-based business leaders as well business leaders of non-Indian origin too.
Over the last 15 years, AIF has leveraged this support base to expand its focus from rehabilitation in Gujarat in early days to accelerating social and economic change throughout India, changing the lives of more than 3.1 million of India’s less fortunate across 23 states. AIF’s programs in education, livelihoods and public health have an emphasis on inclusive models that are built on multi-stakeholder partnerships, almost all of them involving corporate partners, the central and state governments and grassroots NGOs, with AIF working as a fulcrum around which these partnerships deliver positive impact in the lives of under-privileged girls and boys, women and men, beyond what each of these agencies individually could. These partners find exceptional value in terms of leverage that they are able to get, global standards of governance principles and processes and, partnerships that won’t have been possible without the ‘’glue’’ provided by AIF.
It is within this context that we, at AIF, understand and believe in the ‘’power of corporate social responsibility’’. CSR has the power to “catalyse social and economic change in India’’ and transform societies and economies for the better, whilst delivering on corporate goals of building positive brands and creating sustainable businesses. It is encouraging to observe a paradigm shift in CSR from ‘’charity-based’’, one-off intervention approach towards community building through sustainable projects. In fact, CSR is no longer about sustainability and growth only but also about an approach to business itself that reflects the needs of society, the country’s economy and environment. The Companies Act 2013 is giving further momentum to this shift and, as companies deploy more financial resources on CSR, we expect them to deploy more intellectual energy as well to make this investment more strategic in nature.
An example of a successful multi-stakeholder partnership is MANSI (Maternal and Newborn Survival Initiative), AIF’s public health program for reducing maternal and child mortality and strengthening the health care delivery system in underserved areas. It engages in an award-winning PPP model, bringing together the private sector Tata Steel, government (government of Jharkhand) and a technical public health partner (SEARCH). The programme has been running for 6 years now, with a recent extension for another 5 years. Over the last 6 years of MANSI in Saraikella Kharswan district of Jharkhand, the under-5 mortality rate, the NMR and the IMR in the project area declined by 44%, 46% and 39% respectively. This programme exceptional success can be attributed to long-term partnerships, incessant focus on quality of delivery and data collection and operating in a geography where the need was acute.
From our positive experience of delivering impact through multi-stakeholder partnerships involving companies (pl see Box 1 for an example), we believe that as CSR strategies get developed, the following guiding principles will help these strategies achieve their full potential:
- Longevity of the partnership:
Partnering, though beneficial, can be challenging. The Companies Act 2013 has created an unprecedented opportunity for corporate engagement with communities and a space for corporates to partner with civil society to deliver lasting impact in people’s lives. Historically, there is not much experience in either the corporate world or the community based organisations to work together. In fact, in most cases, there is a deep-rooted mistrust and lack of appreciation for each other’s mandate. Whilst this historical context is changing gradually, it is not important to not just look for the ‘’right’’ partners that complement each other but also for partners that have a long-term commitment to the issue/cause that the project is aiming to address. As is evident, most of the social challenges that we aim to address are complex, structural and often inter-generational (for ex, attitudes towards women) and therefore, success often involves changing attitudes and beliefs along with the much needed immediate benefits. A short-term, instrumental quick-fix only approach may show marginal returns on investment but that return often dissipates quickly if not socialised, rooted and sustained for at least 3-5 years. Many CSR projects are complex and take time to realize their full potential. Whilst a short-term investment in a 12-month project may show immediate tangible results, real and lasting change on the ground needs sustained funding, often not showing the most profound and sustainable impact until the fourth or fifth year of funding. Long-term approach to partnership also happens to be the only way to create impact at scale!
- Need-Based approach to CSR investments
It has been observed that in these initial days of CSR, the companies have a tendency to limit their CSR investments only in geographies where they have a presence (a plant or a factory or an office). While the CSR Bill does specify spending around the companies facilities, such spending is often justified or rationalised in the name of ‘’employee engagement’’ as well. Whilst NGO partners see employee engagement as a really important component in the partnership that helps them build a long-term constituency of supporters for the cause, what is equally or more important is to reach out to populations and geographies where the need for external intervention through CSR is greatest. A quick geographical mapping of CSR spend in India shows that there is very little overlap between geographies where the CSR funding is going and geographies which are either most backwards in terms of Human Development Index (HDI) or most underserved in terms of the presence of social actors. A continued divergence between geographies where CSR investments are going and geographies that are most underdeveloped will end up perpetuating the same vicious cycle that has kept certain parts of our country under-developed, creating long-term inequalities and thereby defeating the very macro-purpose of the Companies Act 2013. The role and importance of the private sector has also been recognised in the framing of the Sustainable Development Goals. Companies therefore will need to direct CSR investment where such development needs are the greatest in order to help achieve significant impact on key development indicators. AIF believes that there are innovative ways to engage employees even if the covered geography where CSR project is being implemented is far away. Corporates needs are important too but business leaders must resist the temptation and show the commitment to take their CSR efforts where they are needed most.
- Investing in programme quality and capacity of NGO partners:
There is currently a mismatch between the expectation that corporates have from their NGO partners on the ‘’quality’’ of project delivery and the investment that they are willing to make on developing the capacity of the NGO partners to meet these ‘’quality’’ standards. Sadly, this is beginning to erode the positive mutuality that the CSR partnerships are supposed to create. Often it leads to stereo-typing of NGOs by the corporate partners as ‘’unprofessional’’ and ‘’indifferent to quality’’ and stereo-typing of corporates as ‘’insensitive’’, ‘’ignorant of ground realities’’ and ‘’disrespectful to the principles of partnership’’. The NGOs landscape is vast and varying but generally speaking, NGOs have been traditionally good at community engagement, development processes and a ground-level understanding of the social problems at hand and how best to solve them. That’s the value they bring to the partnership. Corporates, on the other hand, have been better in data-based performance metrics, communications and public relations, rewarding innovation etc. The question is how to move toward CSR strategies that focus on truly co-creating value for the business and the society. Most companies expect the entire funding to go towards the implementation of projects. However, to be able to derive and measure qualitative impact, one has to invest in certain “indirect” or “shared” costs that are not directly related to specific project outputs but are essential to NGOs functioning effectively, such as research and development, innovations, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation, project management, reporting, professional development of staff, knowledge management, and so on. Such funding also plays an important role in allowing NGO’s to pivot and stay relevant when external conditions change making it difficult for the NGO to focus on the issue which could now be the greatest point of social impact. Is it worth it? Companies at the forefront of partnering with grassroots NGOs suggest the answer is a resounding yes. At the same time, NGOs need to raise their standards in terms efficiency, transparency, and measuring outcomes, and should be rewarded for progress. Furthermore, a culture of sharing lessons learned and being open about setbacks is essential for the entire ecosystem to thrive.
The smart partnering view is that CSR is about doing good business and creatively addressing significant issues that face business and society, not simply feeling good. Corporates that seek to implement their CSR activities through smart win-win partnerships and interventions with NGOs are the ones that will receive recognition as successful and responsible corporate citizens.
This article was first published in CSR Good Book 2016, CSR Liveweek.
