Tbl Issue 9 - Humanity: Csr Connect

regulars 4 global briefs people - planet - profits

24 social partnership concern for children trust

27 report: forced labour cost of coercion

32 opinion the poor don't want csr, they just want a job

35 crossword 38 what's happening? 40 breather 47 on the lighter side 48 musings waste not, want not?

Editor-in-Chief Zohare Ali Shariff Editorial Director Khadeeja Balkhi Managing Editor Rutaba Ahmed Research, Development & Distribution Mehfooz Aleem Alizeh Shariq Creatives Kamran Rauf Umair Anwar Hareem Deeba Reprint In line with our mission, we encourage reproduction of material, provided tbl and content partners are given credit Publisher Asiatic Public Relations Network (Private) Limited Printed at Nikmat Printers, Karachi

Subscription, advertising and feedback at: tbl:

triple bottom-line

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A-7, Street 1, Bath Island, Clifton, Karachi, Pakistan. (92-21)-5837674, 5823334 (92-21)-5867103 [email protected] www.tbl.com.pk

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Disclaimer The views expressed in tbl are the authors’ and not necessarily shared by tbl and/or APR Declaration From the office of District Coordination Officer, City District Government Karachi NO.DCO/DDO/LAW/CDGK/109/200 7, Karachi Dated May 22, 2007

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editorial advisory board Anwar Rammal Chairperson

features 10 cover story the menace of bonded labour in pakistan's agricultural sector

14 e-waste issues

Chairman Asiatic Public Relations

Khadeeja Balkhi Executive Member Sustainability Consultant

e-waste recycling in poor countries

17 human rights and capitalism exploring new dimensions in csr

20 labour: macroeconomics

Khawar Masood Butt Founder Sponsor Member Chairman and MD English Biscuit Manufacturers

labour markets: verbosity with meaning

36 csr reporting corporate triple bottom line reporting in pakistan

Habiba Hamid Member Founder, Saracen Consulting

42 synergizing employee goals building teams

45 pandora's csr box the case for banning csr!

46 crisis management business continuity planning can make us stronger

Abrar Hasan Founder Sponsor Member Chief Executive National Foods

Ayesha Tammy Haq Member Corporate Lawyer, Legal and Media Consultant

Vivian Lines Member President and Chief Operating Officer, Hill & Knowlton’s Asia Pacific Region

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editor’s note

for the greater good of humanity

I

n the turbulent times we are living in, social responsibility at every single level of society is a highly desirable behavioural expression. Logically the higher the capability to be responsible, the higher should be the quantum of responsibility exhibited. People are the central focus of CSR, directly or indirectly. In some of our past issues we have looked at this relationship in some depth, particularly in issue 4, which had the theme 'CSR of the company, by the company, and for the people'. If you missed this issue (or any other for that matter), please note that all our previous issues can be reviewed on our dynamic website, www.tbl.com.pk. It's a highly interactive website and I welcome you to also give us your feedback, comments, insights and advice via it. When the editorial team was brainstorming the theme for this issue, we felt the need to focus on people once again. There are several facets that one needs to examine and I suspect tbl will be coming back to the people theme time and again! We endeavour to be knowledge-based and almost all the content in every issue of tbl is original, in terms of expressly being researched and written for tbl on specified themes, and also in terms of not having being published anywhere else before. In the 8 issues we have brought out since our launch in January 2008, the number of our writers and content contributors has crossed the 50 mark, originating from some dozen countries around the world! They are from diverse backgrounds and include CSR specialists, sustainability consultants, journalists, social scientists, academicians, researchers, corporate executives, trainers and experts and subject specialists from still other related disciplines. Then as content partners we have renowned international institutions like CSR International, Economist Intelligence Unit, Ethical Corporation, Global Reporting Initiative and Grist, to name a few. What all this means for you, the tbl reader, is

vision and mission

researched, thought-provoking, original content that includes concepts, analyses, best practices, case studies, national and international CSR reporting, toolkits and more. We believe this dissemination of knowledge on a subject that will continue to become increasingly important in the years to come, was vitally required. As with all pioneering efforts there will be ups and downs but with your support tbl will continue to pursue its Mission with zeal. In this issue we look at CSR and people from the broadest perspective possible - people being all humanity and not just employees or consumers or direct stakeholders in a company's business. We examine issues like child labour, bonded labour and unemployment and where these fit in, if they fit in at all, into the CSR spectrum. For we firmly believe that the ultimate aim of CSR, even for one individual company, must be to contribute to the raising of the standard for all of society and not only for those in your own value chain. In other words we would like to see corporate social responsibility as a business function that addresses larger human issues that may have little to do with a company's business directly. The rationale for this may be questioned by some and even regarded as waste of funds that should otherwise go to the shareholders as dividends. But the rationale for strengthening society holistically is very logical. A more prosperous society overall not only means a larger market for corporate goods and services; it also means a more stable and harmonious socio-economic environment for all businesses to grow in the long run.

Sincerely,

Zohare Ali Shariff Editor-in-Chief

Vision: To steadily facilitate the germination of sustainable visions for organisational growth, sharing specific triple bottom-line knowledge and tools Mission Statement: To disseminate triple bottom-line knowledge to a diversified group including corporate, social development and general business groups primarily through a specialised journal, expanding in accordance with organisational capacity and market readiness

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global briefs

people

Artificial Sweetners and Health Hazards Artificial sweeteners have been linked to bladder cancer in laboratory rats. The cancer affects a mechanism in the rat's bladder that does not exist in humans, and, therefore, the FDA does not consider most artificial sweeteners dangerous for human consumption. A new study from the Water Technology Center is Karlsruhe, Germany has found that most water treatment facilities cannot remove the artificial sweeteners from the water supply. A new, more thorough analysis shows that cyclamate, acesulfame, saccharin, aspartame, neotame, neohesperidin and dihydrochalcone are all out there, polluting our water. Cyclamate, for example, is banned in the United States. It is legal overseas and in Canada. All the other sweeteners are legal, but each come with a string of health concerns. The researchers are still uncertain what effects these sweeteners have on aquatic life. Can artificial sweeteners increase the likelihood of cancer in fish or other animals? What is an acceptable level of artificial sweeteners in our water? Shared by TreeHugger, an online media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream

1 in 8 with lung cancer shows asbestos exposure in Japan In April, the Asia Monitor Resource Centre in Hong Kong hosted the Asian Asbestos

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Conference 2009, at which numerous speakers denounced the tragic human consequences resulting from the continued use of asbestos across the region. It is troubling, then, to see now that a study in Japan shows that one in eight lung cancer patients has previously been exposed to asbestos.

Pleural plaques were detected through the CT scan mainly in people engaged in professions involving repeated asbestos exposure, with 14 out of 35 patients working in the construction industry and six out of 23 in the metal manufacturing and processing industry. Shared by CSR Asia, a social enterprise that promotes sustainable business practices

The research was conducted and jointly released by 12 medical institutions across the nation. About 60,000 people die from lung cancer in Japan annually, which according to the new study means that up to 7,500 deaths could be directly attributed to asbestos exposure. In 2007, only 660 people were recognised as suffering from asbestos-related lung cancer and thus eligible for government aid. The research team said that about 60,000 people die from lung cancer each year in the nation. In fiscal 2007, only 660 people were recognized as suffering from asbestos-related lung cancer and thus eligible for government aid, indicating that many lung cancer patients are excluded from the aid as the exposure has not been confirmed as the cause of their diseases. Between 2006 and 2007, the research team discovered pleural plaques in 28 patients, or 5.9 percent, through chest x-rays, and in 58 patients, or 12.3 percent, through high-resolution computer tomography.

Green Musicians Of all green musicians out there, one of them really takes the cake in my book: Guster. Why should Guster take the cake? It's easy: Because of Guster, many other musicians can go green with a lot less effort. Adam Gardener, singer/guitarist for the chilled out band, started a company called Reverb with his wife, Lauren Sullivan. She is a passionate environmentalist. He is a successful musician with tons of first-hand music industry experience under his belt. I suppose it only made sense that the two of them would get together to start an eco-friendly organization for rockers, right? Reverb is helping musicians across the globe to green their tours. Their client list is too broad to sum up, but Reverb is helping everyone from Fall Out Boy to Bonnie Raitt to Kelly Clarkson go green. Reverb helps musicians to use clean fuel, seek out carbon neutral venues, reduce waste, recycle, use biodegradable catering products, save energy, put together a green

concert rider, produce ecofriendly merchandise, collect green sponsors, obtain green bus supplies, and spread the message to fans. It's a superb organization and thanks to Guster's success, it is reaching musicians at all levels in the industry.

Green Documentaries With 200 films from 30 countries, the Los Angeles Film Festival (June 18 to 28) in Westwood near UCLA, seems far from Hollywood. Among the screenings, a few high-profile documentaries cover environ-mental issues. So now it's time they leave the nest of fests and play in theaters for all of us to see: Bananas!: A Case Study (June 23) This documentary follows the trial of Nicaraguan banana laborers against companies for poisoning them with pesticides. Between its completion and screening, critical new elements came to light. The film explores the relationship between the documentary and "the truth," and the responsibilities of activist filmmaking. Director Frednik Gerttern. Big River Man (June 24) "Swim for peace in the Middle East, for the Dalai Lama, for clean water, and for the rain forest." That's the mission for 53-year-old Slovene Martin Strel, who swam for 67-days, down 3,278-miles of the perilous Amazon River at a pace of 50-miles and 10 hours a day, enduring piranha nibbles to bring attention to his causes. Big River Man also swam the polluted Yangzte and Mississippi rivers. Directed by John Maringouin.

The Last Beekeeper (June 25) A disturbing view of the struggles of three beekeepers, and the devastating effects of ecological changes happening with a mysterious illness among the bees threatens insects and businesses as well as the honey supply and the pollination of food. Director Jeremy Simmons. No Impact Man (June 26 and 28) Though mocked by some media outlets, treehugger wrote about environmentalist Colin Beavan, who embarks on an extreme green living experiment, forgoing take-out, electricity and toilet paper, and dragging his reluctant wife Michelle Conlin and child along for the ride in this meaningful and entertaining documentary. Directed by Laura Babbert and Justin Schein. The Cove (June 28) Covered recently in treehugger, The Cove got the Sundance crowd on its feet with the Audience Award and also nabbed awards at Hot Docs, Seattle, and Blue Ocean film festivals. It's called a cross between Flipper and the Bourne Identity, but this documentary is a devastating thriller following activists using covert military tactics and high-tech equipment to uncover dolphin slaughter, as well as the hoax pulled over on Japanese consumers. Director Louis Psilhoyos. Shared by TreeHugger, an online media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream

Could you breathe better with dirty hair? Clean hair has often been associated with proper bodily hygiene. However, a new study out of the University of Missouri suggests that dirty hair may be good for overall bodily health. Why? Dirty hair absorbs seven times more ozone than clean hair does. That means, the ozone levels around the heads of the unwashed are substantially lower

than the clean-headed. People with dirty hair would, in theory, breathe in less ozone. Ground-level ozone is one of the more dangerous pollutants found in big cities. It's so harmful that citizens are often asked not to exercise outdoors during peakozone hours. People who live in cities with high levels of ozone are also 25 -35 percent more likely to die of lung cancer. The authors of the study are hesitant to say if there is any benefit to keeping your hair dirty. They did go on record saying that "there may be a net benefit." Having dirty hair is problematic as well. First off, it's kind of gross. Secondly, 4-oxopentanal, a pollutant, will get caught in your dirty hair and cause respiratory irritation, which is admittedly better than lung cancer but still bad. Being overly clean may be just as problematic as being unclean. Skipping one ten-minute shower a week can save 25 gallons of water. That's good for the environment, and theoretically, it can keep your lungs bit healthier too. Shared by TreeHugger, an online media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream

“

Companies with their eye on their ‘triple-bottom-line’ outperform their less fastidious peers on the stock market. - The Economist

”

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planet Climate change emerges as top CSR issue The research result of CSR Asia's project, CSR in 10, shows that companies are seen as allocating more resources to this issue and the emergence of China as a key player in the discourse over appropriate policy will create a new impetus for Asian businesses. The CSR in 10 research project examines the top ten issues emerging over the next ten years. CSR in 10 helps businesses to track and prepare for the emerging trends over the next decade. The climate change agenda is also now rapidly shifting from strategies for mitigation to a new emphasis on adaptation. Companies are going to have to demonstrate that they are reducing their own carbon impacts as well as working in partnerships with others on adapting to climate change. Examining both the business risks and opportunities associated with climate change is going to be increasingly important. Companies should measure and report on their own greenhouse gas emissions and demonstrate what measures they are putting in place to mitigate their climate change impacts, and also contribute to climate change adaptation in the communities in which they operate. There needs to be a renewed emphasis on energy efficiency, the use of renewable energy and integrating greenhouse gas targets into strategic environmental plans. Shared by CSR Asia, a social enterprise that promotes sustainable business practices

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Study warns warming may outstrip Africa's ability to feed itself By mid-century, climate change may have outrun the ability of Africa's farmers to adapt to rising temperatures, threatening the continent's precarious food security, warns a new study. Growing seasons throughout nearly all of Africa in 2050 will likely be "hotter than any year in historical experience," reports the study, published in the current issue of the British-based journal Global Environmental Change. Six nations - Senegal, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Sierra Leone-are especially at risk because they will face conditions that are today unknown anywhere in Africa. As a result, even the hardiest varieties of the continent's three main crops-maize, millet and sorghum-currently under cultivation would probably not tolerate the conditions forecast for these countries in four decades. A trio of researchers led by Marshall Burke, a professor at Stanford University's Program on Food Security and the Environment, said urgent measures must be taken to stock seed banks and develop new varieties to stay a step ahead of Africa's shifting agricultural map. The study is based on a mid-range projection from the UN Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) that forecasts an increase in average global

temperatures by 2100 of 2.8 degrees Celsius (5.0 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels. MIT climate modelers, averaging 400 possible scenarios, have calculated that Earth's surface temperatures will jump 5.2 C (9.4 F) by century's end in the absence of rapid and massive measures to slash greenhouse gas emissions. Over 40 percent of Africa's population lives on less than a dollar a day, and 70 percent of these poor are located in rural areas and thus largely dependent on agriculture for survival. The authors note that "adverse shifts in climate can cause devastating declines in human welfare, and have been implicated in everything from famine to slow economic growth to heightened risk of civil conflict." Burke and colleagues found that while most African nations will face unprecedented climates by 2050, they could anticipate future needs by stockpiling seeds from neighbouring countries with similar conditions today. Shared by Grist, an online environmental news magazine

Green Road Trip Riding the "Vehicle for Change," a team of 15 grads and students "dedicated to diminishing environmental and economic issues through education," clamored aboard the Big Green Bus to drive 12,000 miles across the US. On June 17, they stopped off at

the Timberland store in Manhattan to unveil the newly retrofit 1989 MCI bus's eco-features. The 40-state trek stopped in Washington DC to meet with Legislators from 1pm to 5pm. After a baseball game with alumni, they moved on to North and South Carolinas, meeting with Charleston's Coastal Conservation League. Then crossing the south to New Orleans for July 4th, they volunteered at Green Works. Onto Texas, over to California and Yosemite, turning eastbound through Utah, up to Minnesota in August, on to Detroit, Pennsylvania, and back home to New Hampshire. So how's riding a bus across the country eco-friendly? It's solarpaneled and fueled with waste vegetable oil (WVO). And the interior is retrofit with bamboo floors, VOC-free paints, and other green building materials. Now let's see the carbon footprint when that info is posted. How's it educational? Workshops cover: Consumption and Recycling 101, Introduction to Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency Practicum, and Guide to Green Food Choices. Eco-friendly hand-outs are available from student presenters in this sustainable science fair on wheels. For the fifth year on this journey, the crew members will post blogs about their experiences (meeting with the NRDC, visiting green roofs, etc.), podcasts, videos, and interact with you via sponsor Changents with renewable energy-powered WiFi on board. Among the engineering, biology, literature, and public policy student team, Kari Cholnoky,

who's majoring in Environmental Studies and Studio Art, says: As a member of the Big Green Bus crew of 2009 (which is the weirdest group of students ever assembled) I have decided to turn Pro. I'm going to educate the living daylights out of anyone that comes my way in an effort to raise awareness of environmental issues and help people make smart decisions on how to live more sustainably.

The previous meeting was held in Argentina last year, with Sweden hosting the talks in 2007. According to an American study published last summer, the Ilulissat glacier, a UNESCO-listed site, lost 94 square kilometres (60 square miles) of surface area between 2001 and 2005 due to global warming. Shared by Grist, an online environmental news magazine

Shared by TreeHugger, an online media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream

Climate Talks: Greenland Around 30 environment ministers and delegates from the world’s biggest polluters are set to meet in the Danish territory of Greenland Tuesday ahead of the larger UN climate summit in Copenhagen at the end of 2009. The informal meeting is taking place in Ilulissat on Greenland’s west coast. Danish Climate Minster Connie Hedegaard said it will aim to “change points of view and go further in its conclusions than those in other forums.” The United States, Germany, Britain, France, Russia, Japan, India, and Brazil are all attending the four-day “Greenland dialogue”, an annual meeting on climate change first held by Denmark four years ago in the same town. Only China has not confirmed if it will send a delegation so far. Danish media have speculated that Beijing is still upset about a visit by the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to Copenhagen last May.

Eco-point Scheme An interesting scheme in Japan: Three leading providers of electronic money services said they have asked the government to include their e-money cards on its list of goods and services exchangeable under the Eco-point system. The three companies are Aeon Co., IY Card Service Co., and bitWallet Inc. Under the Eco-point system, consumers receive points for refrigerators, air conditioners and digital terrestrial televisions designated by the government as environmentally friendly. Purchases must be made before the end of next March, and consumers can exchange their accumulated Eco-points for other goods and services. According to a report, the Ecopoint system is financed by the government's economic stimulus package and aims to boost consumer spending and cut greenhouse gas emissions. Shared by CSR Asia, a social enterprise that promotes sustainable business practices

A spokeswoman for the Chinese Embassy in Denmark told AFP they were still deciding whether to attend. A number of African countries will also be at the meeting including Sudan, Tanzania, and Mali.

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profits CSR must be seen as an investment Treating expenditure relating to CSR as investments will help to keep the concept on the Boardroom table in the current economic downturn. More then ever, companies can make a difference to those communities worst hit by the economic crisis and it is important that they move away from traditional forms of philanthropy and towards community investment strategies. Such strategies linked to issues around the Millennium Development Goals (and others) can have a huge benefit for businesses in terms of establishing trust, building brands and enhancing reputation, an article in the Manila based Business Mirror. Shared by CSR Asia, a social enterprise that promotes sustainable business practices

New studies tout the economic benefits of green jobs Investments in clean energy-such as those encouraged by the American Clean Energy and Security Act-would produce several times as many jobs as the same amount of money spent on traditional fossil fuels, according to new studies released recently by a coalition of environmental groups and research institutes. Lower-income Americans in particular would benefit, according to a report from the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, which was commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Green for All. Upgrading the U.S. economy to 8 www.tbl.com.pk

rely less on fossil fuels would create a surge of manufacturing and construction jobs that would include renovating homes and buildings to be more energy efficient, tapping clean energy sources such as wind and solar to produce more electricity, and building better transit systems and other infrastructure improvements. A separate report produced by the Center for American Progress and released jointly Thursday found that a $150 billion annual investment in clean energy could create a net increase of 1.7 million American jobs and significantly lower the national unemployment rate. Clean energy investments take dollars that would be spent on energy from overseas and instead invest that money in local, homegrown energy sources and improvements in energy efficiency, which saves homeowners and businesses money, said Bracken Hendricks, a CAP fellow. That's why clean energy investments create more than three times as many jobs as the equivalent investment in traditional fossil fuels, he added. The bottom line, said NRDC executive director Peter Lehner, is that the United States will spend trillions of dollars on energy over the coming decades, in one sector or another. That's especially true for people with lower levels of education, according to the NRDC and

Green for All report. It found that about half of the 1.7 million new jobs created by a $150 billion investment in clean energy would be available to workers with a high school degree or less, providing opportunities to lift low-income workers out of poverty. The study confirms that a "nonpolluting economy" provides more opportunities for people of color and people in urban areas, said Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green for All. NRDC's Lehner added that "the two reports provide solid evidence why we need to move forward" by encouraging Congress to pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which is expected to be considered soon by the House. Although ACES is not perfect, Lehner said, it's a starting point for capping global warming pollution and investing in clean energy-and the need for clean energy investments and the resulting benefits to the U.S. economy have never been clearer. Shared by TreeHugger, an online media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream

Japan, Norway wasting millions on whaling: WWF Major whaling nations Japan and Norway are wasting millions of dollars in taxpayer money to prop up what is likely a loss-making industry, an international conservation group said Friday. "It is clear that whaling is heavily subsidised at present," said a report by the WWF, which

analysed the direct and indirect costs of hunting the ocean mammals and selling their meat. "In both Japan and Norway, substantial funds are made available to prop up an operation which would otherwise be commercially marginal at best, and most likely loss making," it added. While demand for whale meat is on the decline and prices have about halved over the past decade in Japan, the government had dished out 12 million dollars during the 2008-09 season for the industry to break even, WWF said. Total Japanese subsidies had amounted to 164 million dollars since 1988, the report added, citing government data. Meanwhile Norway had spent a total of nearly 20 million dollars since 1993 in direct and indirect aid on its whaling activities, said the report, which was copublished with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. Government subsidies had accounted for almost half of the gross value of nearly all the whale meat sold in the country between 1994 and 2005, the report added, citing a national fisheries sales body. That proportion had decreased in the past three years after the government replaced a costly inspection scheme on whaling boats with an electronic logbook system, the report said.

Japan believes is its original purpose-managing a sustainable kill of whales. Japan agreed in 2007 to suspend plans to expand its hunt to include humpback whales, which are popular with Australian whale-watchers. Norway and Iceland are the only nations that hunt whales in open defiance of a 1986 IWC moratorium on commercial whaling. Shared by Grist, an online environmental news magazine

CSR Regulation in Indonesia An article in the Jakarta Post reports a government representative commenting that more CSR regulation in Indonesia is likely to be passed in order to qualify the new article 74 of Company law that mandates CSR. The representative quite rightly pointed out that the law is difficult to apply as there are no supporting regulations. He suggested that the government has noted that many companies support 'CSR' out of profit, rather than building it in as an operating cost and that CSR for most companies is about PR. This has been pointed about by critics of the law ever since it was passed. How long new regulations will take and how clear the follow up regulations will be is anyone's guess. Shared by CSR Asia, a social enterprise that promotes sustainable business practices

Japan launched its latest whaling mission in April with the aim of catching up to 60 minke whales off its northeastern coast. The focus of negotiations is now whether to allow Tokyo to conduct commercial whaling near its coast if it scales down its Antarctic hunt.

Offshore drilling: a threat to the shores? The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee gave its blessing for offshore drilling in Florida last week, potentially opening Florida’s coasts to oil and gas development.

Japan defends whaling as a tradition and accuses Western critics of disrespecting its culture. It has threatened to leave the IWC if the body does not shift to what

This is a major reversal that reneges on the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006, which offered the oil and gas industry rights to 8.2 million acres

in the eastern Gulf in exchange for the protection of coastal eastern Gulf waters. This agreement was supposed to remain in place until 2022, but would be undone if this bill becomes law. You should expect to hear the argument, again, that we need offshore drilling to keep gas prices down – that the state of the economy requires it. We wonder, then, how drilling hawks will respond if a spill devastates Florida’s beaches or reefs. According to a federal study, tourism contributes $40 billion to Florida’s economy each year and supports half a million jobs. The U.S. Energy Information Agency has predicted that offshore drilling, even at peak production, will save consumers just pennies at the gas pump. And that’s assuming the gas even gets sold to Americans rather than China, India or any of the other increasingly energy-hungry countries in the world. Not to mention that it will take years for peak production to be realized and for any economic changes to be felt. To open Florida’s shores to drilling sets us up to accept all the risks of oil and gas development without any of the promised benefits. Lower gas prices and energy security from offshore drilling are mirages at a time when fossil fuels are increasingly outdated. Shared by CSR Asia, a social enterprise that promotes sustainable business practices

Compiled by Rutaba Ahmed

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cover story

the menace of

bonded labour in pakistan's agricultural sector by ahmad ali for tbl

Agriculture remains a significant economic activity in Pakistan, employing nearly 45 percent of the total workforce. While it generates about a quarter of the national GDP, the agricultural sector is not very productive. Skewed landownership and exploitative production practices remain significant factors in perpetuating this lackluster agricultural performance. The phenomenon of bonded labour is perhaps the most glaring example of prevailing exploitations within agriculture. This article will begin by highlighting the problem of bonded labour in rural areas of the country. Thereafter, the effectiveness of various local and international agencies in abolishing this practise will be discussed.

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At the onset however, it must be realised that this issue of bonded or forced labour is both highly politicised as well as being prone to concealment in all the four provinces of Pakistan. Until the late 1990s in particular, no one seemed to pay any heed to this issue despite that fact that Pakistan had ratified International Labour Organizations (ILO) Conventions against forced labour since the 1960's. The existence of national laws such as the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1992 also did little to change the situation on ground. Inaction or apathy concerning this practice can be attributed to a lack of empirical knowledge regarding the issue, combined with inadequate institutional capacity to take appropriate action, as well as socio-cultural acceptance of this phenomenon within the context of a highly stratified social set-up which exists across the country. This gross form of human exploitation is also linked to the lingering challenges of widespread poverty and growing income inequalities, and lack of adequate employment opportunities.

The Complexities of Forced Labour Before assessing what has been done over the past decade or so to contend with this problem, and what else may be done at present, let us take a closer look at the complex realities surrounding this issue. Forced labour in Pakistan, primarily in the form of debt bondage, is found most commonly amongst agriculture workers. In addition, a high incidence of bonded labour is found in brick kilns, domestic service (particularly women and child labour), carpet weaving and mining. In the above sectors apart from mining, women feature as a major labour force. Since no written contract exists the worker is vulnerable to all forms of exploitation. Bonded labourers are mostly from socially excluded groups, including minorities and migrants who suffer additionally from discrimination and political disenfranchisement. Studies conducted by reputable agencies like the Asian Development Bank (ADB) reveal that Pakistan has a large rural-urban gap in terms of social and economic indicators of development. The dominant economic characteristic of the agricultural labour

force in Sindh and Balochistan is extreme poverty and low social indicators of development. Poverty is pervasive and deep, especially in rural areas. Landlord and tenant relations in rural Pakistan also continue to exhibit traditionally feudal dynamics. Poor tenants do not only rely on their landlord for access to land, but also for agricultural inputs, which in turn obligates them. Inevitable expenditures on social occasions such as marriage, death and feasts also lead poor people to accumulate debts taken from landlords where these landless farmers work. Often, these loans are given with high rates of interest, which keeps compounding over time. Bonded labourers within the agricultural sector are not allowed to leave landlord's farm till their debts are repaid. Given the lack of education to calculate how much money they owe to the landlord, and how much of it is being deducted every month from the overall money made by their labour, these loans often keep unfairly accumulating so as to compel generations into forced labour.

Exploitation of Workers in Sindh Today, Sindh has the highest rate of landlessness in Pakistan. More than 40 percent of the land in Sindh is tenanted out by big landlords. Conversely, landlords in Punjab are much smaller than those in Sindh, with an average holding of only seven acres of land, compared to a landlord in Sindh, who is on average estimated to own 28 acres of land. While the position of the poorer cultivators in other provinces of the country is by no means ideal, human development indicators in rural areas of Sindh are amongst the worst in Pakistan. It should thus not be surprising that of the over 1.7 million people estimated to be engaged in bonded labour in Pakistan by the ILO, the majority of them are landless tillers ('haris') in Sindh. In Sindh, the problem of bonded labour is increasing. In earlier times, only big landlords used to have bonded labourers but now even mid-range farmers are enslaving desperate people by lending them money. During the time that they are bonded, labourers and their families are kept in detention-like conditions. Often the wives and children of male labourers are

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also held in captivity. Recent statistics complied by NGOs working for the abolishment of bonded labour in different parts of Sindh estimate that there were some 1.2 to 1.3 million people engaged in bonded labour in this province alone. Sindh tried to introduce some legislative protection for the vast majority of its tenants subsequent to partition. In 1950, the Sindh Assembly passed the Sindh Tenancy Act. This legal measure aimed to simultaneously address the duties of tenants and landlords and to provide means for the division of produce between them. However, the Act was never properly implemented, and it was also manipulated by landlords to continue extracting surplus from their tenants. Under this Act, neither the 'hari' nor his family is required to provide free labour to the 'zamindar'. But as neither tasks nor working hours are strictly specified, determining what constitutes free labour and what does not is difficult and subject to the individual discretion of the landlord. Resultantly, disturbing cases of entire families being subjugated by their landlord to pay back insurmountable debts which have accumulated over the generations recurrently keep cropping up. In theory, all bonded labourers should have been freed under the subsequently introduced Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act of 1992, and those responsible for keeping them in bondage should have been prosecuted. However, such is not the case since the political and financial strength of the landlord's allows them to continue using bonded labourers with impunity. The lack of empowerment of the rural workforce is another reason which allows this exploitative practice to persist. Given the vulnerability of the underprivileged landless poor, the need to strike some sort of a balance in the asymmetric power relations between landlord and cultivators is evident. Yet although Pakistan's Industrial Relations Ordinance of 1969 (IRO) provides for the right of industrial workers to form trade unions, even if these unions are subject to a variety of restrictions. On the other hand, Pakistani law is particularly hard on agricultural workers who are even denied the right to form unions, which prevents them from

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bargaining collectively, or making any demands on their employers, or check against brutalities like forced labour. Unless something is done to drastically improve the circumstances of the marginalized rural tillers of the land, boosting agricultural productivity to achieve food sovereignty, and alleviating rural poverty will remain but elusive goals. About the Writer Ahmad Ali has a Masters degree in Financial Economics from the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). He teaches A-Levels Economics and Advanced Placement Economics at the Lahore Grammar School and Lahore American School.

“

All the problems of the world - child labour, corruption are symptoms of a spiritual disease: lack of compassion.

”

Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th Dalai Lama

“

By accepting responsibility, we take effective steps toward our goal: an inclusive human society on a habitable planet, a society that works for all humans and for all nonhumans. By accepting responsibility, we move closer to creating a world that works for all.

”

Sharif M. Abdullah a leading proponent and catalyst for inclusive social, cultural and spiritual transformation and author

e-waste issues

e-waste recycling in poor countries

by miriam katz for tbl

The Scale of E-Waste In 1989, the Basel Convention was created by the United Nations (UN) in order to limit hazardous waste. This treaty was ratified in 1992 by 149 countries; however, it was not signed by the U.S, which means that enforcement of this treaty is scant, according to a report by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and Basel Action Network. It is possible to gather statistics on e-waste; however, the true scale of the problem may not be known. According to the US National Safety Council, 315 million computers were rendered useless between 1997 and 2004. In addition, in the US, between 50 and 80 percent of e-waste is sent to poor countries. This problem is further exacerbated by the fact that many US states are now banning e-waste from landfills states Markoff in an article in the New York Times.

n Western countries, it is increasingly common to replace electronic equipment within a few years. Currently, many countries are implementing laws that mandate switching from analogue to digital television broadcasting, further accelerating the rate at which people dispose off their old televisions. In addition, because of rapid advancements in technology, many people in both the global South and North are replacing mobile phones and computers. Because of this, the generation of electronic waste, or e-waste, is growing rapidly.

I

Many people are unaware that their old computers and televisions are shipped to countries including China, India and Pakistan for "recycling". This article will discuss the implications of this problem. First, the scale of the problem will be revealed and secondly, specific case studies in the aforementioned countries will be discussed including the effects on workers and the environment. This section will also examine the chemicals contained in electronic equipment. Finally, solutions to the problem will be discussed. 14 www.tbl.com.pk

The problem is not only confined to the US. Worldwide, the UN estimates that between 20 and 50 million tons of e-waste is generated every year. Approximately 12 million tons of this comes from Asian countries. The European Union estimates that e-waste will grow every year by 3 to 5 percent and now, e-waste constitutes a larger portion of municipal waste than diapers or drink containers, according to the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and Basel Action Network. This is clearly a serious

problem if the e-waste cannot be recycled properly. In many poor countries, even those who have signed the Basel Convention, e-waste is handled improperly. Many workers are illiterate and are not aware of any safety regulations governing the handling of e-waste. In 1994, an amendment to the Basel Convention was introduced, which forbid the export of hazardous waste, including e-waste from OECD countries to nonOECD countries. Many countries including the US, Canada and Australia are actively fighting against this amendment, which will allow the situation to deteriorate even further. Currently, most e-waste is exported to a few specific areas such as Guiyu, Delhi and Karachi in China, India and Pakistan respectively. The following section will examine the problems in these areas. The Situation in Guiyu, China Guiyu is located in Guangdong Province in Southern China, very close to Hong Kong and the South China Sea. It has a population of 197,190, according to statistics given by Falling Rain genomics. There are at least 100,000 workers engaged in the e-waste industry and many are working just with chisels and their hands. In this area, the Basel Action Network conducted several studies to assess the scale of the situation. It was found that most e-waste had come from North America, but some had also arrived from Japan, South Korea and the European Union. The Basel Action Network also tested the soil and water. In the water, the lead levels were 2400 times higher than World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. In addition, the sediment at the bottom of the river was tested and

it was found that chromium was 1,338 times the recommended US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) level. Both chromium and lead are dangerous chemicals, which will be further discussed later in the article. Due to the water pollution in Guiyu, water has been brought into the town from 20 miles away since 1995, states Markoff in an article in the New York Times. Delhi's Situation In New Delhi, it is perfectly normal for computer circuit boards to be burned. Because of this, air pollution is a very large problem. Many old computers come to India because the government allows the import of 10 year old computers, states Sinha in an article published in Toxics Alert, an environment news bulletin. In addition, the labour costs compared to the US for computer recycling is very low. In the US, the cost of recycling one computer is $20 whereas it costs just $2 to recycle it in India, Sinha reveals. Although much of the e-waste in New Delhi comes from rich countries, much of it also originates from within India. As of March 2007, 150,000 tons of e-waste was produced in India; 19,000 tons of this comes from Mumbai, the largest e-waste generator in India, according to a study by an environmental group Toxics Link, titled 'Mumbai: Choking on E-Waste'. Presently, there are no laws in India governing e-waste. In addition, many workers in the e-waste industry are illiterate. Thus, even if India did pass laws banning the import of e-waste, the workers would be unaware of the situation. Thomas Kostigen, author of 'You Are Here' states that, as of September 2008, India was considering a law that would designate e-waste as non-

hazardous waste, which would further encourage the import of e-waste and endanger the workers. Karachi's E-Waste Industry There are many people engaged in the e-waste industry in Karachi, many of whom are children. This is happening despite the fact that Pakistan imposes a 25 percent levy on computer screens, according to IT-Green, Ethical UK Computer disposal and data destruction specialists. Circuit boards in Pakistan are often taken apart indoors with blowtorches and with very little ventilation. The circuit boards originate from all over the world, including the US, Kuwait, Australia, Japan and the UK. Only 2 percent of the computers can be reused; for the remaining computers, all of the metals and plastics are taken out to be re-sold, according to Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and Basel Action Network. All of the work is done by hand and no protective equipment is used. Robert Knoth, a photographer affiliated with Greenpeace, created a photo essay about the area of Lyari in Karachi. This area receives a lot of e-waste from Europe. Knoth found e-waste burning near the river in Lyari and many of the chemicals from the e-waste had seeped into the river, turning it black. He also found that many children, some as young as 12, were working in the e-waste industry. Many children are abused in Pakistani schools and as a result, 50 percent of children in their first 5 years of education drop out, which is one of the highest rates in the world, according to a report by IRIN News, a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. In addition, the Pakistan

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Paediatric Association conducted a study about abuse in schools and found that 88 percent of children in Karachi were given corporal punishment. Lastly, it is important to note that there is very little law enforcement concerning e-waste in Lyari and other parts of Karachi. Chemicals found in E-Waste and Their Effects Brominated Flame Retardants Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are put into computers in order to decrease flammability. Studies have been done on BFRs recently, which show that they can bioaccumulate in animals and humans, meaning that they can easily enter the bloodstream. In addition, if computer parts are burned, dioxins are released, which are very toxic, according to Greenpeace International. Even if computers are recycled properly, the high temperatures allow BFRs to combine with other chemicals, which is very dangerous. For these reasons, some computer companies are phasing BFRs out of electronic products. Lead and Chromium Lead was phased out of gasoline in the US in 1996, according to Centers for Disease Control. One of the main reasons for this was the fact that lead can cause brain damage and can affect sperm production as well as increasing miscarriages. Lead is also able to travel long distances and can affect almost every body part as it can penetrate the central nervous system. Lead is also very dangerous for children because it can affect reasoning and mental ability in general. Children's brains are especially prone, as the brain is still rapidly developing. Chromium can easily enter the

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soil and water. If it is breathed in, it can cause nose ulcers, shortness of breath, and asthma. If chromium enters drinking water, stomach tumours are quite likely. Lastly, chromium is a known carcinogen; if it is merely breathed in, lung cancer can occur in both people and animals. Solutions to the E-Waste Problem There are many solutions to the e-waste problem. Firstly, many people in countries such as Japan, US, Canada and South Korea as well as the European Union are unaware that their old computers and televisions are being exported to poorer countries. If there was more awareness of the issue, it is likelier that people in the aforementioned countries would try to recycle their computers in their own countries. Secondly, if the Basel Convention were signed by the US, it would carry much more weight. As the world's largest exporter of e-waste, the US has a responsibility on this issue and has a duty to sign the convention in addition to ending its opposition to the amendment. In countries such as Pakistan, there are many solutions to the e-waste problem. First, China, India and Pakistan are all parties to the Basel Convention, which means that more enforcement is needed. In Pakistan, many children are dropping out of school due to abuse and for employment opportunities. This needs to end; however, it will undoubtedly take a long time for school culture to change. In the meantime, workers and the environment affected by the e-waste industry need protection. A special fund should be set up by rich countries to educate workers in the industry about the

dangers and for law enforcement. If this were the case, the dangers faced by workers would decrease. References Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and Basel Action Network "Exporting Harm: The Techno-Trashing of Asia" http://svtc.igc.org/ cleancc/pubs/technotrash.pdf John Markoff "Technology's Toxic Trash is Sent to Poor Nations" http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0225-01.htm Erica Gies "US Switch to Digital TV raises specter of toxic dumping of old sets" Greenpeace International "The e-waste problem" Falling Grain Genomics Inc "Guiyu, China Page" http://www.fallingrain.com/ world/CH/30/Guiyu.html Satish Sinha "E-waste: Time to Act Now" < http://enews.toxicslink.org/featureview.php?id=1> Toxics Link India "Mumbai Generating 19,000 Tons of E-Waste Annually: Study" http://enews.toxicslink.org/newsview.php?id=19 IT Green "The Environmental Impact of un-managed Computer Recycling" http://www.it-green.co.uk/ethical_computer_disposal.htm Robert Knoth "Scrap Life: E-Waste in Pakistan" IRIN News "School Beatings Make Pakistani Students dropout" http://southasia.oneworld.net/Article/school-beatingsmake-pakistani-students-dropout Centers for Disease Control "Lead"

About the Writer Miriam Katz is a freelance writer based in London. She currently writes for the Environmental Peace Review. Her areas of interest include environmental issues, renewable energy, biofuels and climate change. She holds a Bachelors in Arts degree in Political Science and Environmental Studies from the University of Toronto. She can be reached at [email protected]

human rights and capitalism

exploring new dimensions in csr

by sohaib jamali for tbl

C

orporations have been actively practicing strategic philanthropy for a little more than a decade. With time there is increasing awareness that what was once considered a management fad has now strengthened its roots - many thanks to the growing understanding of the need to save our planet. But what about the people, the employees? How long would firms make people trade their freedom for money - duping them with an environment fit for the body but one which confines their mind by means of mechanical job descriptions, fostering assembly-line thinking? Perhaps this thinking stems from the heart of capitalism's inhumanity to treat labour as a

commodity. Economic textbooks may treat the exchange of labour for money as a transaction much like the sale of a bushel of apples, but we all know that in human terms, there is a huge difference. In fact it is ironical that, as a society we cherish individualism at one end, yet we treat labour as an homogenous input at the other. Commodities may have a sense of uniformity, but clearly human beings do not. Each person is a unique blend of different skills, character, values, and so forth. Understandably, early proponents of assembly line structures were wooed by cost-reducing methods to boost efficiency and profits thus they could not see its detrimental consequences on the

society. But as human knowledge expands and as experience has shown, there is plenty of evidence which proves that robotic work behaviour is playing havoc with the very fabric of society by means of dehumanizing people. The Inferiority of Our Age The famous Iranian scholar and sociologist, Ali Shariat once said: "A robotic worker becomes an instrument, simply a piece of equipment for production and his effort is confined to a monotonous job which he must do day after day and in doing, suspends all the characteristics which make up all his personality." Making minds one-dimensional also has other long run repercussions. For instance, it may result tbl may-june 09 17

in a shortage, if not a demise, of ingenious human capital reducing our potential as a society to deal with complex, multifaceted, volatile problems in today's world of rapidly changing circumstances. Besides, knowledge and learning has its own pattern of diminishing returns, if one only keeps doing only a particular kind of work. Bertrand Russell, at the BBC Reith Lectures on Authority and Individual, states that with society centralized and organized to such a degree that individual initiative is reduced to a minimum, the age we live in seems inferior to the ages before, despite all the technological breakthroughs that we seem to enjoy. An energetic man yesterday was a painter, a philosopher, a poet, a discoverer and a scientist at the same time. He could be all this without having to associate himself with a centralized, specialized body of persons. Likes of Michelangelo, Nostradamus, Ibn-e-Khaldun were free men and in essence it was partly this freedom to think and act which triggered their ingenuity and elevated them to become such great polymath scholars, adept in diverse disciplines. On the contrary energetic men today are tied to tunnel thinking in the name of specialization to reduce costs and gain efficiency margins. Rarely have we seen the same energy, same freedom and same breakthrough in the modern age. Incidentally, however, one of the last breakthroughs that changed the world we live in came from men who pursued their free will: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. The example of Gates and Jobs is not to advocate a college-less society (although, given the current education system I wish schools weren't to fixate minds with theories taught as absolute truths - marking an end to our intellectual curiosity and making us slaves of the assembly-

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line corporate structures), but to highlight the importance of freedom to do what one wishes to do. Beyond Ergonomics In a time when corporations have effectively mushroomed to be a major controlling group of the society, it becomes 'their' responsibility to elevate us from this sort of inferiority. Business managers should mature out of the limited CSR activities (such as good pay scale, ergonomics and a healthy working environment) they do, and embody the promotion of individual freedom, initiative, and cross discipline growth within the CSR framework. The framework should also ensure that purpose of work and purpose of worker are not divorced from each other. These may be achieved by means of restructuring the organization, becoming relatively localized and de-centralized, employing flexible tools of management and by adapting systems to men instead of trying to fit men to systems. It is important to note that individuals with initiatives will not be able to pursue their dreams unless the company gives them the freedom and funding to do so, according to Nonaka and Takeuchi in 'The Knowledge-Creating Company'. These structural changes might result in a short run loss of efficiency in some respects but if brains are not to be paralyzed by way of tunnel thinking perhaps this loss should be absorbed to ensure sustainable long run returns. Failure to do so is a lose-lose situation for everybody. "Both employees and organizations lose from this arrangement. Employees lose opportunities for personal growth, often spending many hours a day on work they neither value nor enjoy, and organizations lose the creative and intelligent contributions that most employees are capable of making, given the right opportunities," argues management

analyst Morgan, in 'Images of Organization'. For those who might think these structural changes are not pragmatic, consider firms like 3M which is practicing at least some of these ideas for long. At 3M not only researchers can spend 15 percent of their on-the-job time pursuing their own dreams, but those from others departments are also encouraged to dream and endeavour to actualize it on the firm's expense. These principles are also incorporated in 3M's internal corporate requirement that at least 25 percent of its sales must be derived from products that did not exist five years ago, according to Nonaka and Takeuchi in 'The Knowledge-Creating Company'. With this sort of driving force behind them, employees, really, are much less likely to become like machines. And while measures like these may not help us lie outside the famous Aristotelian observation that "all paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind", but they would be a step in the right direction. If we are still interested in a society that appreciates critical thinking, individual initiative, entrepreneurship and above all an educated mind with diverse understanding and practical exposure, then we need to revise the intellectually limiting ideas of assembly line production and labour mechanization. References Paul Krugman: The Accidental Theorist Bertrand Russell: BBC Reith Lectures on Authority and Individual Ikujiro Autor Nonaka, Hirotaka Autor Takeuchi: The Knowledge-Creating Company: how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation Gareth Morgan: Images of Organization

About the Writer Sohaib Jamali is a financial journalist from Karachi. He can be reached at [email protected]

labour: macroeconomics

labour markets:

verbosity with meaning by ali sohail for tbl

W

hen a downturn hits, there is a fall in demand, and it is labour working at the lowest tier of the market which gets bumped out of the economy first. Many perceive this as a consequence of adhoc decisions on the part of employers, but infact such is a systematic consequence of the function of the labour market. Similarly, job creation in regions of high unemployment will not necessarily increase employment of personnel living in the region, not to the desired extent anyway, as argued by Ian Gordon, a professor at the London School of Economics. The two-fold reality calls for intervention.

begins at the high-end tier of the market where the highly skilled and paid are placed, states Ian Gordon. As the downturn hits the economy, there is a fall in demand. This provides two basic choices for labour in the top tier: either accept reduced wages or face unemployment. Upon choosing the latter, labour in the top tier transfers the buck to the tier below. They are faced with a similar choice, and the process spreads through the different tiers of the labor market. With subsequent tiers passing the buck to the ones below, the lowest tier is eventually bumped out of the market (or working on voluntary terms).

When The Bug Comes to Town Lets start by understanding the bumping down process first. It

Similarly, assume a company is established (new jobs are created) in an area of low skilled workers.

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The investment in the region, would not necessarily translate into jobs for the unemployed of the region. Instead most jobs will be pushed to other regions, as the new ones would mostly be taken by the already employed in same and nearby regions, creating an asymmetric picture with jobs being subsequently pushed out of the region, states Gordon. For instance, the creation of new jobs in Central London will not mostly be taken by the unemployed living in the area (some will be), and many from the outskirts or other parts of the city (or nearby city) will gain employment. Alternatively, the jobs in the region may move between the already employed in the area, slowly and gradually pushing the

creation of opportunities outside the target area (region of high unemployment residents). This in classical terms provides perfect scope for government intervention to rectify the shortcomings of the labour market system. However, in a country where the government is weak; is unable to provide basic necessities/security to most, let alone identify and rectify such shortcomings, social problems are inevitable with a high probability of chaos over the long run. This will provide scope for what may be termed as corporate intervention (social responsibility). In such circumstances, local solutions need to be developed to rectify the problems of labour markets rather than the continued stand-alone rhetoric of attaining the first best view of the world as noted by most academics and policy makers in the form of ' better government policies, greater responsibility, tailored and proactive policies', with an advancement of the counterproductive blame game. In Pakistan, we continue to live in an ideal world, and are unable to move beyond the classical boundaries and definitions of our world set in a place far away from our local realities. Looking for Solutions We live in a post modern world driven by knowledge, and if it teaches us anything, it focuses on developing local solutions. This in the given case of Pakistan would involve responsibility and action being undertaken by the corporate and industrial sector (private), which would fill the gap between the shortcomings of the classical market system and the inability of the government to completely rectify it. This does not mean that all should be taken away from the government's plate. After all, they

need to provide for favourable macro-economic conditions, assist and at times provide economic benefits to firms with most activity in the cause. In other words, the weakness of the government in the noted areas should be complemented by the potential strength of community and corporations in the other. Simply said, we need to go beyond the traditional scope of corporate social responsibility. It shouldn't be noted as an act of philanthropy, rather as a byproduct of operation. This may seem infiltrated with problems and bottlenecks at first. However if advanced in a strategic, coherent way, under a selfdeveloped and directed strategy by the corporate sector, it has the potential to advance various clear benefits over the traditional outlook. This is purely because individual firms will advance action in their respective sectors, industries and scope of businesses. The approach should be tailored, focused and directed towards bridging a key gap, which would not only be a social cause, but will reap private benefit along with tacit gains and goodwill for the company. In any case, the private sector is better informed; has greater market knowledge specifically with regard to current and future labour market conditions such as demand, supply, skills and shortages, due to the very nature of their interaction. Therefore, it is better able to tackle and rectify loopholes in the labour market system. Before the private sector can actively get involved in such activities it needs to take note of the policies already in place, or should potentially be implemented by the first-best body (government), and develop its framework accordingly. For instance, it is argued by Gordon in his paper in 2002, that skill development (and

other supply side policies) is vital, as demand side policies in isolation will not always attain the desired results, especially in regions of high unemployment. This is because the new created jobs will be pushed out of the area. At best, a focus on reducing unemployment through a pure utilization of demand side policies (inject demand in the area) will lead to an over estimation of employment effects. Thus, the private sector needs to invest in skill development, help individuals push themselves up the skill and employment cart. The corporate and industrial sector can invest in developing vocational training centers or get involved in existing vocational centers, educate the management about the direction of current and future market, undertake a comprehensive portfolio, focus on market needs and shortages rather than providing training for populous and/or subsistence level careers. The focus should be on pushing labour up their skill cart, rather than providing for their subsistence. Leading companies also need to invest in higher education, given the existing dearth in quality, with the aspiration of investing in a feeder for themselves in the form of schools and universities. A noteworthy project in this regard is an initiative being taken by House of Habib, envisioning the launch of the Habib University, with the commencement of the first academic year in 2012. Organizational incentives for selfgrowth need to be encouraged. Internal staff trainings are vital. They should not only be limited to what a company perceives to be its core team but across the board from junior to senior executives with a focus on specific and general skills. This would

tbl may-june 09 21

also change the face of human resource training and related support industries.

Moreover, when a downturn hits, CSR budgets are reduced, even for the most stable of firms.

Some organizations, as noted by various authors, are skeptical of undertaking such an investment, as there is no guaranttee that the investment would reap private benefits to the company (if the employee switches his/her job).

However, a deeper thought may reverse this action, especially as during times of economic slowdown, the economic cost (opportunity cost) of investment in human capital is low, as return on other investments are low. If the downturn is short lived, investment in training may make greater economic sense, as argued by an article in the financial times.

There will certainly be free-riders, and may reap greater social benefits than private benefits in the short run, but in the long run, such companies will attract the highest quality of labour, brand and social image. Moreover, it will set the basis and tone for the market to follow. After all, companies in Silicon Valley are known for leading the race of technological innovation, rather than being mass producers. Similarly, a company can find its niche beyond traditional grounds. Moreover, learning is a continuous process. In fact, upward labour market mobility should be encouraged. This would involve developing a flexible labour market with individuals moving between jobs, to move up the employment ladder. This would enhance the absorptive capacity of labour in the market, pushing people up the employment cart, as argued by Gordon et al. On the other hand, this may retard corpo-rations from investing in human capital given the tradeoff between private and social benefits. However, if corporations can internalize the scope of social responsibility in their mandate, such concerns can be reduced. Further it is vital to understand how the scope for private gain will enhance over the long run. At the very least, such tailored and directed investments may be better utilized relative to lumpsum amounts, as they may produce better and focused results.

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However, Teddy Wayne highlights the inability of people to think in terms of opportunity cost, unless forced to do so. Therefore common sense may recommend suboptimal thinking, even for the most stable and risk neutral firms, as the return from investing in human capital is tacit in nature, which may not always be directly measureable, not over the short run anyway. It is important not only to focus on the number of jobs being created, but also on the quality of jobs, as such is vital for achieving sustainable economic development. Similarly, it is vital not to undertake training programmes for the sake of the matter, but focus on who gets training, as otherwise we will purely create greater competition at the lowest tier of the employment ladder, with minimal overall economic benefit, states Gordon. Corporations can also polish internal procedures by enforcing and ensuring equal opportunity practices. Evidence noted by Buck et al points to discrimination by employers through postcodes in London. This may also be true for Pakistan as social and mental classifications may seek to influence behaviour, creating barriers in the workings of the labour market. When There Exists a Light The scope is vast and various

other initiatives and innovative endeavours can be undertaken. If parts of the government fail to attain the wholesome objective, so be it. The civil society, and most importantly, a segment of that society, namely the corporate and industrial society should deliver. It may seem an ambitious task, requiring a cultural shift, it may even have some competing incentives, but after all we are talking about social responsibility which is not only an economic endeavour but involves a mental and emotional transition. The seeds need to be set, it requires coherence and organization; the ability to think beyond the current scope; the willingness to invest not only in the future of Pakistan, but in our individual selves.

References Gordon, Ian and Turok, Ivan (2005). How Urban Labour Markets Matter. In: Buck, Nick and Gordon, Ian and Harding, Alan and Turok, Ivan, (eds.) Changing Cities: Rethinking Urban Competitiveness, Cohesion, and Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK, pp. 242-264. Buck, Nick and Gordon, Ian and Hall, Peter and Harloe, Michael and Kleinman, Mark (2002). Working capital: life and labour in contemporary London. Routledge, London, UK Gordon, Ian (2002). Unemployment and spatial labour markets: strong adjustment and persistent concentration. In: Martin, Ron and Morrison, Philip S., (eds.) Geographies of labour market inequality. Routledge, London, UK, pp. 55-82 Teddy Wayne (2009) Drilling Down, The power of a nudge towards drift, The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/ 2009/05/25/business/25drill.html?ref= business

About the Writer Ali Sohail is an economist by training with a postgraduate degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has diverse experience spanning the auto industry; communication; education development and planning; business and economic research, analysis and writing.

social partnership

concern for children trust

I

mproving the quality of life for Karachi's urban slum children costs far less then you may think. Noorjehan is one of 200,000 children who live in Karachi's largest unofficial kutchi abadi: Mohammadi Machar Colony. She wakes up every morning at 5 am to do housework and also cooks for her family. Her mother is critically ill with Hepatitis C and her father, a day labourer, is away from the house from 6 am to 8 am, attempting to make the Rs. 2,500, that is the average monthly family income in this area. Because there is no access to natural gas, Noorjehan has to spend at least 3 hours in gathering, preparing and lighting the firewood on which she must cook. At fourteen, she is the primary caregiver to six younger siblings. Machar Colony is home to 750,000 people who have no access to gas, safe water or sewage facilities. Most children like Noorjehan are unable to attend the tiny private schools that dot the locality because they are employed, either in caregiving or in working long hours in the neighbourhood's many 'jinga baras' or shrimp peeling warehouses. Hours of hard labour in appalling unhygienic conditions can earn a child Rs. 30-50 per day. It may seem like a pittance, but over half of the area's families can only spend Rs. 300 a month on the care of each of their (on average six) children. Concern for Children Trust (CFC) is a not-for-profit organization that has been actively working in Machar Colony since 1997. Originally founded as a project to ensure access to good quality healthcare and branded medication to the area's children, it has developed in the past twelve years into a comprehensive community driven development project which addresses the unique challenges of the locality of three thematic areas: 1. Health (of which mental health is an integral part), 2. Education/ vocation and 3. Sanitation. In light of this new cohesive mandate to community building, CFC has successfully run health awareness projects, trained local birth attendants in safe delivery practices, built a well-outfitted mother and child healthcare center, introduced art therapy

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Roof top view of Machar Colony houses

programmes in six local schools and implemented a community kitchen that allows local residents access to safe and green fuel. All this has been made possible with the generous support of private donors and with CSR initiatives implemented with local companies. Additionally, after the devastating earthquake that rocked the country, CFC mobilized as a disaster relief organization, providing mental health training to local people in Kashmir and running a tent school for the children of Bandi Chakan whose only school building was destroyed by the natural disaster. As part of CFC's commitment to sustainable development in communities, a permanent, earthquake proof school is currently under construction in the area. CFC's mandate, to build empowered lives for children and their families, forms the backbone of all community interventions. Community awareness meetings are carried out on a regular basis, community leaders are always consulted on projects in the design stage and an emphasis is placed in project design on sustainability in the future with minimum funding. One way CFC approaches sustainability, is to invest in early interventions; health and education with the youngest members of the society ensures changes in habitualized behaviours in the community that

CSR with some partners allows CFC to ensure that 85p of every rupee goes straight towards the running costs of projects, allowing the greatest coverage for each programme.

Boy filling drinking water to sell

prevent growth; family planning and the role of women for example. Members of the community who use CFC developed projects such as the Mother and Child Healthcare Center (MCH) or the Community Kitchen, pay a small fee for the service - this usually covers the basic running cost of the project if used by a certain number of users over time. Most recently, CFC has become involved with the relief effort for the Internally Displaced People (IDP) in the north west of our country. A CFC medical mission, in conjunction with two NGO's on the ground in Mardan and Swat (Omer Asghar Khan Development Foundation and Sungi) provided medical care and medications to over 600 IDPs.

It costs just 1,000 rupees a month to provide 10 women with pregnancy tests, allowing CFC's community doctors to provide well-rounded prenatal care. Rs. 3,000 buys 300 safe delivery kits, allowing CFC's trained traditional birth attendants ('daees') to ensure sanitary and safe birth for 300 women and their babies. Rs. 1,400 allows a child from the most challenging background to participate in a four week long summer art therapy programme that fosters self esteem and Rs. 3,000 a month pays the rent of the community kitchen, allowing 24 mothers to feed their children safe and nutritious food. Noorjehan has been able to return to school as she now utilizes the facilities at the CFC community kitchen, allowing her to cook for her family in an hour and attend classes in the afternoon. Through awareness raising sessions at the Community Kitchen, Noorjehan is learning about hygiene, how to keep her siblings safe from hepatitis, how to save money using a simple piggy bank and the impor-

Additionally the mission created health profiles for each housing facility, identifying potential sources of disease and highlighting IDPs who require medical monitoring for chronic conditions. CFC is externally audited each year, providing corporate partners and donors with the reassurance that their contributions are well spent. Organizational costs account for less then 15 percent of the over all budget, due again to the successful long term partnership that CFC has built with corporate partners such as Glaxo Smith Kline who provide office space, stationery, technical support, computers and communication costs. This "in kind"

Machar Colony: Facts Currently population of Machar Colony: 750,000 Number of children: 200,000 Average household income: 2,500 Rs./month Average number of children in each family: 6

Poor sanitation

tance of continuing her school work. For every child that a CFC programme reaches, there are 200 we are unable to help due to a shortage of funds. Companies can play a pivotal role in assisting well reputed NGO's to attempt to ensure opportunities for health, education and environment are provided to people from all walks of life.

Questions for corporations to ask an NGO before forming CSR linkages with them 1. 2. 3.

Is the organization registered? Does the organization have tax exemption? How does the organization handle its finances?

tbl may-june 09 25

4. 5.

Is the organization externally audited? Does the organization have a governing body/trustees? 6. What experience does the organization’s management have with development projects? 7. How long has the organization been working with a particular community or group? 8. How will the organization’s plan ensure sustainability of the project? 9. What tools does the organization use to monitor and evaluate the project? 10. Has the organization worked with corporations before or received any grants?

2.

Education/Livelihood

2.

Mother and Child Healthcare Center (MCH) The MCH provides comprehensive out patient services in the following areas: Tuberculosis Prevention, Immunisations, Family Planning, Skin, Gynaecology and Pediatrics.

Shrimp Peeling Child Labourer's Drop-in Learning Centre A safe space in the community where working children can come after work hours to play and learn.

3.

Community Awareness Meetings Held fortnightly in various homes in the community, locally employed community mobilizers and CFC doctors have informal chats with community women on various health concerns.

Microcredit for Small Enterprises CFC will work with local banks to provide a system of micro credit for small entrepreneurs in the community and provide borrowers with tools for successful running of small business.

Health

Quarterly Health Camps Day long camps with volunteer doctors and free medication are a means to provide quality care to a large number of residents. Each camp serves approximately 800 patients.

4.

The Community Kitchen This provides women a safe and sanitary place to cook. It encourages the use of green fuel and reduces deforestation. Also, it supports healthy mother-child interactions by housing day care for children under 5 years of age. Biweekly information sessions are hosted on nutrition, hygiene, mental health. The Machar Art Programme This programme provides Machar colony school students with training in art and photography from some of the leading professionals in the city. It serves a unique and necessary therapeutic function in allowing children a space to be children, to have fun while learning and to develop problem-solving skills by sharing common narratives. The artwork generated in the programme is displayed annually in an exhibition serving as an important awareness raising function and a major source of income generation for community projects.

26

Future Plans for Machar Colony

Project Kitab Capacity building for existing small schools in Machar Colony through teacher training, provision of books and learning tools.

3.

5.

Training and Capacity Building of ‘Daees’ (Local Birth Attendants) CFC provides basic training in sanitary habits, and identification of problem cases during labour and delivery.

1.

CFC: Currently Running Programmes 1.

6.

www.tbl.com.pk

1.

Training of Community Women as Peer Psychological Counselors Based on past projects in Karachi, CFC plans to train women from the community to provide basic mental health counseling, and provide extensive supervision for community counselors.

2.

School Mobile Health CFC will provide basic outpatient services to children through their schools. This will allow for better follow up of immunizations.

2.

Ambulance Service CFC will form linkages with existing NGO's running ambulance service to enable timely transportation of residents to hospital at nominal charges.

Environment 1.

Garbage is Gold Scheme: Sorting and sale of recycled goods to companies that manufacture building material out of it.

2.

Sanitation Project: Development of sewage lines, community toilets.

3.

Solar Stoves: Utilize solar technology for cooking, heating etc to ensure sustainability and lower adverse effects on the environment.

report: forced labour

cost of

coercion

report by international labour organization for tbl

T

he Global Report on forced labour, published in 2005, provided figures to show the truly global scope of the problem, which affects virtually all countries and all kinds of economies. Some 12.3 million persons worldwide were in some form of forced labour or bondage. Of these, 9.8 million were exploited by private agents, including more than 2.4 million in forced labour as a result of human trafficking. The highest numbers have been found in Asia, some 9.4 million, followed by approximately 1.3 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, and at least 360,000 in the industrialized countries. Some 56 percent of all persons in forced labour were women and girls. The annual profits, from human trafficking alone, were at least US$32 billion. What changes can be detected over the past four-year period? Ideally, our 2005 global and regional estimates would have encouraged governments to carry out their own national estimates of forced labour. Although some pilot initiatives have been launched, this process has hardly begun in most countries. However, a number of qualitative surveys continue to enhance understanding of the main forms of forced labour, their causes, and the appropriate policy response. In other cases, a deliberate policy by governments to strengthen law enforcement against forced labour, including trafficking for sexual or other forms of economic exploitation, has brought to light forms of abuse that hitherto went undetected. While an ever-growing number of agencies, organizations, pressure groups and individuals have expressed concern about forced labour, there have been some complex debates concerning what is or is not forced labour, what should be done about it, and by whom. Measuring forced labour: The need for representative samples Given the nature of forced labour, careful consideration has to be given to the sampling techniques. Simple techniques, such as the random selection of households in a particular region, will not produce the required results when forced labourers are hidden or clustered. In such cases, simple random sampling is likely to miss all the persons

ILO's Definition of Forced Labour Forced labour is the antithesis of decent work. The least protected persons, including women and youth, indigenous peoples, and migrant workers, are particularly vulnerable. Modern forced labour can be eradicated with a sustained commitment and resources. Addressing this concern with vigour is a concrete way to give practical effect to the vision of social justice for a fair globalization, set out in the Declaration adopted by the International Labour Conference in June 2008. Progress can be made through a multipronged strategy, attacking the criminal practices of forced labour at the bottom of the ladder, rescuing and rehabilitating its victims, tackling other aspects of labour exploitation, and promoting opportunities for decent work for all women and men. An activity does not need to be recognized officially as an "economic activity" for it to constitute forced labour. For example, a child or adult beggar under coercion will be considered to be in forced labour. Forced labour of girls and boys under 18 years old is also one of the worst forms of child labour, as defined in the ILO's Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182). Child labour amounts to forced labour not only when children are forced by a third party to work under the menace of a penalty, but also when the work of a child is included within the forced labour provided by the family as a whole. affected, and erroneously conclude that there is no forced labour or trafficking. Nevertheless, to ensure that sample survey results are applicable to a larger population of interest, two conditions must be met. First, every member of the population must have a non-zero probability of being selected. Second, the sample must be sufficiently large to ensure that the margins of error of the final estimates are reasonably low. In practice, however, persons in forced labour situations may not always be hidden or hard to detect. Bonded labourers in South Asia work openly in fields or informal sector enterprises, as do the indigenous peoples of Latin America, who are particularly vulnerable to forced labour. tbl may-june 09 27

Migrant workers in destination countries often gather in clubs on their days off. In such cases, it is perfectly feasible to use simple sampling techniques. Migrants can also be surveyed about their experiences abroad, after they return to their home countries. Regional Study: Asia In Asia, three issues remain of particular concern. One is the persistence of bonded labour systems, particularly in South Asia, although legislation to prohibit and punish these practices has long been in place, together with mechanisms to identify, release and rehabilitate bonded labourers. A second is the widespread incidence of trafficking of both children and adults, for both sexual and labour exploitation. A third is the persistence of forced labour exacted directly by the State and official institutions, notably in Myanmar. One feature of Asia is the extensive movement of workers from the poorer to the wealthier countries within the region, as well as from Asian countries to the Middle East, Europe and the Americas. In the larger Asian countries, such as China and India, there have been similar large-scale movements within the country, from the poorer provinces to those with significant industrial growth and a consequent demand for temporary labour, and in some cases more permanent relocation of the workforce. Given the complex nature of Asian bonded labour, a targeted approach in particular sectors by region can be advisable. Such an approach has been taken by the Government of Punjab province in Pakistan which, with ILO support, envisages an integrated programme to combat bonded labour in brick kilns. The ILO estimates that Latin 28 www.tbl.com.pk

America accounts for the second largest number of forced labourers in the world after Asia. Only a few countries have made systematic efforts to investigate and document forced labour and its incidence. However, the strong efforts made by some countries, most notably Brazil and Peru, have improved understanding of contemporary forced labour and its underlying causes. Contract labour and recruitment Inadequate mechanisms for the recruitment and placement of workers can result in labour exploitation, including forced labour. The link between informal labour brokering and bonded labour systems in parts of Asia and Latin America has long been acknowledged. It is also widely accepted that workers who migrate through unlawful intermediaries, often finding only clandestine employment in destination countries, are at particular risk of forced labour. ILO has conducted research on private agencies and recruitment systems in areas and countries including Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Russian Federation. Studies were also commissioned in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, mainly examining the experience of temporary contract workers from these countries in the Gulf States. Some findings were presented at a Gulf Forum on Temporary Contractual Labour, held in Abu Dhabi in early 2008. Second, extensive capacity building has been provided for government officials including labour inspectors, as well as employers and trade unions. ILO research with returned migrants from the Gulf States, conducted in 2007 in Bangladesh and Pakistan, while concluding that the experience of most migrants had been positive, also

found that the high costs of migration were making it less financially profitable for the workers. In Bangladesh, where the average costs were around US$1,400 for men and half that amount for women, the total cost of migration had risen by more than 130 percent over the 2000-07 period and had generally not been balanced by a rise in incomes. In Pakistan, the average total cost for persons employed overseas was US$1,000, more than 12 times the ceiling set by the Government of Pakistan. Most Pakistani migrants paid all fees in advance, with approximately half financing migration costs from their own savings. The economics of forced labour: Measuring the costs of coercion Our last Global Report estimated at US$31.7 billion the total illicit profits produced in one year by trafficked forced labourers. Further ILO research at that time indicated that, worldwide, total illegal profits made from the 8.1 million forced labourers in economic exploitation, outside the sex industry, reached US$10.4 billion. It is equally important to address this question from a different angle. What, in addition to human suffering, are the financial costs of coercion to the people who work in forced labour situations? In other words, how much money is "stolen" from people in forced labour? Answering these questions requires some estimate of the"opportunity cost" of being in forced labour, namely the income lost through being in forced labour rather than in a free employment relationship. ILO research over the past few years suggests that the loss of income associated with coercion can be traced to two main sources. The first is the underpayment of wages. Indeed,

it can be argued that economic exploitation is the main reason why some employers use coercion. In most cases, people in forced labour receive wages lower than the market rate, in some cases less than the subsistence minimum. People in forced labour often receive wages net of some artificial deductions imposed in a discretionary way by their employer. For example, victims may be overcharged for the cost of their accommodation - a cost which is often directly deducted from the victims' nominal wage. Underpayment of wages includes forced overtime and other forms of "excessive work" which are not adequately remunerated. Forced labourers typically work longer days and longer weeks than free workers, sometimes up to 16 hours a day for seven days a week. The second source of lost income, which arises mainly in cases of human trafficking, is the financial costs associated with the recruitment process. Migrant workers trafficked into forced labour often incur a series of costs linked to their recruitment, including payments to a recruitment agency or a broker, funding a particular type of training necessary for being eligible for admission to the destination country, acquiring language skills, or payment for the visa and transportation. Can the global cost of coercion be estimated? At present, the data are still relatively scarce and much more research is needed in this area to obtain a precise and robust idea of the magnitude of the cost of coercion. Some benchmark figures can nevertheless be calculated, excluding victims of forced commercial sexual exploitation but covering the other economic sectors where the incidence of forced labour has been most

widely documented. On the basis of available information, we estimate that the total amount of unpaid wages to people in forced labour amounts to approximately US$19.6 billion. The regional breakdown is shown in the table below. The figures are obtained by multiplying the total number of victims by the estimated average underpayment of wages in different sectors (agriculture, manufacturing, construction and services). The latter, in turn, is estimated as the difference between the actual wage payments made to forced labourers and an estimate of what they should have been paid in light of figures of labour productivity in those sectors. In addition, trafficked victims have been observed to pay

A number of prominent companies have seen their image badly affected by allegations of forced labour in their supply chains. And this means not only companies engaged in productive activities in those sectors commonly perceived to be at risk, such as agriculture and construction, with their high incidence of temporary work and of "dirty, difficult and dangerous jobs". The past four years have seen a wave of allegations affecting companies engaged in steel, electronics, footwear and textiles, and much more. Similar challenges are also faced by suppliers to global companies and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) integrated into global supply chains. For them, the risk posed by forced labour entering the

Estimating the total cost of coercion (in US$)

recruitment costs which vary from US$150 in poor regions to an average of more than US$5,000 for securing a job in industrial countries (while in extreme cases the payments can be more than ten times this amount). When multiplied by the number of trafficking victims in each region, this represents a global sum of more than US$1.4 billion. When added to the lost income due to unpaid wages, we estimate that the total cost of coercion to workers amounts to a benchmark figure of about US$21 billion.

operations of their subcontractors can negatively affect not only their own reputation but that of their entire industry, which in turn can have a broad impact on trade relationships with global buyers and with access to global markets.

Business actors and private companies can have many different concerns. For global companies, with extensive supply chains and outsourcing, the main issue is likely to be supply chain management.

But there are at least two outstanding issues of concern. First, when modern supply chains are so complex, there is the question of how far a company's liability should extend. Second, when the jurisprudence on forced labour in

Because forced labour is a serious crime, businesses have a legal obligation to prevent and eradicate it in their company operations, failing which they can be liable to criminal prosecutions and sanctions.

tbl may-june 09 29

the private economy is still so young, there are bound to be uncertainties and "grey areas" as to which business practices constitute the risk of forced labour. As has been seen from some of the more recent national litigation, judicial interpretations will also vary between countries. Taken together, the forced labour concerns affecting business can be classified approximately as follows. First, there are the widespread problems affecting small industries, sometimes in remote areas, in developing countries. These are long-standing concerns of the largely informal economy, as in the brick kilns or small garment factories of such South Asian countries as India and Pakistan, which are likely to include deeply embedded practices of bonded labour. Second, there are the industries which appear to be at risk of forced labour practices within individual developing countries, mainly because of the nature of recruitment practices. There is a very clear risk of forced labour through debt bondage, when temporary workers are recruited through informal and unlicensed intermediaries who entice their recruits through the payment of advances, and then make their profits through a series of inflated charges. Third, there are the problems facing multinational enterprises (MNEs) which outsource their production to companies operating in developing countries. Fourth, there are the potential problems facing all companies, in developed and developing countries alike, which engage contract labour through different kinds of employment or recruitment agencies. An event held in 2008 brought together senior representatives from employers' organizations

30 www.tbl.com.pk

and business across Asia, alongside representatives of civil society. Participants discussed the role employers' organizations and business can play in combating forced labour in the region and set out a series of recommendations directed at private actors. Forced labour and poverty reduction in developing count-ries: A focus on prevention Research and operational programmes have led to an enhanced understanding of the population groups at risk of forced labour, often as a result of a long-standing pattern of poverty and discrimination. They can include caste and other minorities in Asia, indigenous peoples in Latin America and, in some cases, the descendants of slaves in Africa. Experience has shown that, together with improved law enforcement and labour inspection, there is a need for better prevention strategies, including the targeting of poverty reduction programmes and development resources at the communities most in need. Broad-based action against bonded labour systems, particularly in Asia, will continue to take place at different levels. At

the policy level, persons in or at risk of bonded labour should be specially targeted through poverty reduction programmes, including microfinance initiatives. Sensitization programmes for government agencies and officials are of key importance, identifying the various means at their disposal to address bonded labour systems and practices. At the community level, it is essential to build on the good practice learned so far, replicating this in other areas of known bonded labour incidence. The involvement of local employers' and workers' organizations will be a key element of future approaches. In Latin America, given the particular vulnerability of indigenous peoples to forced labour and debt bondage, the issues will be accorded due importance in programmes to address poverty through promoting the identity and rights of indigenous peoples. Note The report ‘Cost of Coercion’ 2009 has been printed in tbl with permission from the International Labour Organization (ILO).

opinion

the poor don't want csr, they just want a job

by david watson for tbl

“

[The] Poor … have their own dignity and do not wish to be

regarded the begging bowl of the economy. They don't want

hand outs. Philanthropy by itself does not create sustainable value for them. They want jobs, fair wages, fair trading, responsible investing, ethical buying and transparency in transactions.

”

World Council for Corporate Governance

32 www.tbl.com.pk

Corporate Social Responsibility has often been lauded as businesses' response to the problems of poverty and disadvantage - their contribution to creating a better and more equitable society. Many corporations themselves also include grand aims of poverty reduction in their stated goals for their CSR programmes. But are CSR initiatives actually directed at responding to the poor's needs, to reducing poverty and disadvantage? Leaving aside the myriad CSR projects that are little more than loosely packaged marketing, most of the remaining CSR projects (especially in Pakistan) are engaged in community and social development, such as health and education projects. These are (in the main) useful and beneficial for the poor, but what many of the poor want most of all is a job and an income, an area where precious little CSR attention is being focused. The Role of CSR For the Poor? Now of course CSR is not purely (or even primarily) focused on helping the poor and disadvantaged. CSR is not philanthropy or charity, but rather it is doing business in a socially responsible way. But yet many companies do state that their motive (or part of) for engaging actively in CSR is to help the poor and disadvantaged.

education, healthcare and welfare projects, which is laudable, but slightly missing the point if the first hope of the poor is employment, a livelihood, a job. The understanding that employment and job creation is critical to poverty reduction has been growing in recent years, although note that there is quite some debate in this space. According to the World Bank 2009 report, "China and India Account for a large share of the World's Poverty Reduction". Multinational organisations such as the UN, World Bank, ILO and UNIDO have promoted economic development initiatives as a response to poverty and disadvantage, and Government-funded donor agencies (for example, USAID, CIDA and DfID) have invested significant sums of money in job creation and livelihoods projects. But although the donor development community has (albeit slowly) come around to the understanding that job creation can significantly reduce poverty and disadvantage, businesses themselves still focus the majority of their CSR attention on social welfare projects. It's All About Jobs! And here companies actually have an advantage. Their core business isn't in schools or hospitals, but they do know all about employing people, about providing jobs, and stimulating business.

For example, "SSGC deserves praise for wholeheartedly contributing towards the national agenda for poverty alleviation", as stated on Sui Southern Gas Corporation, Pakistan's website.

And of course companies are doing this; they are providing direct employment and employment or vocational training to local communities.

Firms engage in a variety of

The correlation between direct job

creation and CSR is one of some debate, but companies that are creating jobs that pay a fair wage, with good working conditions and associated benefits, are having a direct positive impact in communities. But beyond this, and with potentially greater impact, some companies are engaging in developing entrepreneurs and enterprise development through their supply chains (often called business "co-creation"). Companies are helping small businesses start and flourish, making their produce part of their supply chain to improve the quantity, quality or security of their supply chain, and creating jobs and livelihoods in local communities. One approach to this is called "value chain development". This term has largely been used by the development community (including USAID and DfID) to describe an approach to analyse markets, market dynamics, and to understand the role of the poor in those markets. The approach then seeks to identify what constraints there are to the growth of the end-to-end value chain (that is, from input providers to end consumers), and to the growth of the share of the poor in the value created. But although this approach and terminology has arisen out of the development community, it is well suited to a CSR-led analysis of a company's supply chain. Companies can use this approach to explore where the poor and disadvantaged are already engaged in their own supply chain, and what constrains their ability to increase their produc-

tbl may-june 09 33

tivity, improve the value they capture for the work that they do, and improve their livelihoods. Turning Theory into Reality For some poor producers, it is simply a lack of knowledge and access to markets that limits their ability to provide appropriate products.

uct provided up the supply/value chain to the company, whilst significantly increasing the incomes of the poor farmers. In Pakistan, both Nestle Pakistan and Haleeb Foods Limited are working to strengthen the share of the poor in their milk value chains.

the poor and disadvantaged, if they really want to positively impact the communities around them, then stimulating job creation in their supply chains and in the wider economy isn't a bad place to start, in fact, it is the obvious place to make a difference. References

Working with producers (or producer groups) to help them understand market requirements (example, style, design, timing) and linking them to traders or processors can open up new markets, increase sales for the trader or processor, and improve the livelihoods of the producers.

Nestle is working in animal husbandry with hundreds of thousands of farmers, with the aim that "better animals means there will be better milk. We gain a reliable supply of high quality milk, but the greatest benefits, both immediate and long-term, are to the farmers themselves," as stated on Nestle's website.

Since 2001, Carrefour's Spanish subsidiary has been working to support the inclusion of the poor throughout the developing world into their global supply chains.

Haleeb is working on a new project to explore how they can strengthen the involvement of poor rural homebound women in the fresh milk collection, aiming to raise the incomes of 6,000 poor women.

One project in Ecuador had provided over 2,000 families with sustainable livelihoods through the production and export of innovative food products within one year of operation. The new products have proved very popular with Spanish consumers, have been profitable for Carrefour, and have changed the lives of thousands of poor Ecuadorian farmers and their families. The Global CSR Casebook has a full case study on this titled 'Business and Poverty'. Often, poor agricultural producers lack basic knowledge about use of inputs (example, fertilizers), about product handling (example, for soft fruits), and about the requirements of processors or wholesalers. Investing in the knowledge of the producers can improve the prod-

34 www.tbl.com.pk

This project, known as "Pathways and Pursestrings" is being undertaken in conjunction with Mennonite Economic Development Associates (Canada) and the Entrepreneurship and Community Development Institute (Pakistan) with support from the Canadian International Development Agency. Summary Whatever way you look at it, the poor want jobs. And companies have the skills and the opportunities to create jobs. Companies have the opportunity (and some would say the responsibility) to work with the poor and disadvantaged in their own supply chains, to help them increase their livelihoods, and to stimulate job creation in their communities.

World Bank 2009 http://www.ssgc.com.pk/ssgc/society/ http://www.microlinks.org/ev.php? ID=9652_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC For a full case study, see "Business and Poverty. The Global CSR Casebook" pp189-203. ICEP 2008 (http://issuu.com/icep/docs/business_and_p overty._the_global_csr_case-book) http://www.nestle.pk/index/ agri-services.aspx http://www.nestle.pk/index/ agri-services.aspx

About the Writer David Watson is a business and strategy consultant whose passion is to see business used to create and strengthen livelihoods for the poor and disadvantaged. David's work includes Corporate Social Responsibility, mentoring of Social Entrepreneurs, and helping facilitate MicroEnterprise amongst the poor and disadvantaged. David has been in Pakistan for since 2007 with his wife and 2 boys.

“

Social obligation is much bigger than supporting worthy causes. It includes anything that impacts people and the quality of their lives. - William Ford Jr.

”

Chairman, Ford Motor Co.

If companies really want to help

crossword

CROSSWORD Across 3. A person who organizes and manages any enterprise 5. Money that is paid or received for work 8. At least 1 in 4 people in Pakistan live below the national ______ line 9. Everybody wants to be a ______ 11. A means of supporting one's existence 13. Retirement age? 15. Which mammal was featured on tbl's last issue 18. A medieval social system 19. King Arthur and his knights sat on a table shaped like this, also the name of a tbl event mentioned in the previous issue

Down 1. What executives look for besides a good salary 2. When prices increase it is also termed as _______ 3. To give authority to 4. The condition of being free from restriction or control 6. The ordinary people in a community or the names of two things found in a garden 7. A group of people living in the same locality and under the same government 10. Labour without rights 12. Another word for the theme of this tbl issue 14. The state of one bound in servitude 16. Productive activity, especially for the sake of economic gain 17. When one owes money, they are in ______

tbl Issue 8 Hints Across 2. An act or instance of revealing or unmasking 6. Material written for publication in a newspaper or magazine or for broadcast 7. Something which is obtainable; attainable 10. Radio, television, newspapers, and magazines are means of ________ 11. The act of companies disingenuously spinning their products and policies as environmentally friendly is known as ________ 13. Banning or deleting any information 16. Happening at the same time as its being viewed 17. Flamboyant or dramatic methods to generate publicity 18. The reporting and subsequent publishing or broadcasting of news 19. The first English newspaper of Pakistan 20. Multicolored, Multipurpose, Multi_______

Think you got it? Tell us at [email protected] and see what surprises we have in store for you!

Down 1. Most newspapers have a segment titled: Letters to the ________ 3. To be in accordance with the accepted principles of right and wrong 4. Stubborn and complete intolerance of any creed, belief, or opinion 5. To cause partiality or favoritism 8. Spot or message aired on television or radio which is paid for by an advertiser 9. The process of persuasion, often through coercion 12. News channels have news________ 14. Something that spiders do, but can also mean a hidden slant of a press source, in the media world 15. A way of influencing peoples minds

tbl may-june 09 35

csr reporting

corporate triple bottom line reporting in pakistan "The companies can no longer afford the luxury of ambiguity," states WBCSD report titled 'Corporate Social Responsibility: Making Good Business Sense'. The trend of environmental reporting started in 1990s and a few reports came out from some very progressive companies in the world. This became a fashion with the turn of the century. In 2002, environmental reporting became a legal requirement in Denmark, France and Netherlands. Till now, this has remained as a voluntary tool without specified legal codes and requirements. However, in many countries, guidelines and frameworks have come to fore to assist corporations in reporting. The notable among those are Best Practice Guidelines of UK (2002) and Global Reporting Initiative Guidelines (2002). The later is by far the best effort in developing a common reporting ground for companies around the world as it has developed an increased and visible interest of businesses in environmental reporting since then. "Many multinational companies are now issuing social responsibility reports. While environmental, health, and safety reports are common, reports tackling issues such as human rights or child labor are not. In order for these reports to be useful, a global consensus needs to evolve on the type of information to be disclosed, the reporting format to be used, and the reliability of the evaluation and audit procedures", according to the 'Green Paper on Corporate Social Responsibility' published on Europa, portal site of the European Union. "CSR reports of the progressive companies showcase their social and environmental profiles on periodic basis as they highlight their financial standing to their stakeholders. Some nations require CSR reporting, though agreement on meaningful measurements of social and environmental performance is difficult. Many companies now produce externally audited annual reports that cover Sustainable Development and CSR issues but the reports vary widely in format, style, and evaluation methodology", states a blog on corporate social responsibility. by muhammad arshed rafiq for tbl

CSR Reporting Initiatives in Pakistan In Pakistan, several multinationals are regularly producing their environmental reports in line with their global commitment and policy. These reports however mostly contain positive impacts and company actions and not the negative ones. Some local firms from the carpet industry, sporting goods industry and surgical industry are also partnering with government agencies, NGOs and UN agencies to further their social and

36 www.tbl.com.pk

economic goals and report them periodically. In particular, these firms are improving labour standards, protecting biodiversity, and providing health facilities to numerous local communities in Pakistan. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) took an initiative in association with ACCA Pakistan in May 2002 under the title of Pakistan Environmental Reporting Awards to promote Environmental Reporting in national and international companies operating

in the country. As a principle, PERA (Pacific Employment Relations Association) does not provide any particular guidelines of its own. Rather, it promotes the GRI guidelines. There is a progressive trend in environmental reporting as shown under the PERA scheme which received 8 reports in the first year, 18 in the second and 12 in the third year. These reports have a varying degree of thoroughness, objectivity, transparency and clarity. Their formats also

vary and social and economic dimensions of corporate sustainability are not very distinct. Many specialized organizations are now working to sell the idea of CSR reporting to corporations in Pakistan. CSR Pakistan, Global Compact Pakistan, Responsible Business Initiative (RBI) and the Pakistan Center for Philanthropy (PCP) are some organizations which are promoting social and environmental responsibility reporting in the country. In general, the multinationals and big national companies have been reporting so far. Most of the businesses that fall in SME category and the industrial sectors have never learnt the concept at all. The Cleaner Production Institute, which is the research and development organization in the nongovernmental sector and works to enhance the competitive ability of industry, has partnered with more than 500 industrial units in the paper, textiles, leather and sugar sectors, through implementation of environmental and energy technologies, certifications and reporting etc. Case in Point: Programme for Industrial Sustainable Development The CPI is currently carrying out its Programme for Industrial Sustainable Development (PISD) in collaboration with Royal Netherlands Embassy and intends to facilitate at least 43 industrial units to generate their annual CSR reports during the project life (2007-2010). The CPI teams chose two important models and guidelines for this purpose, that is, the Global Reporting Initiative and UNIDO's Responsible Entrepreneurs Achievement Program (REAP). The earlier is an acceptable international model while the later provides customized guidelines for SMEs especially of the

developing countries. The GRI's G3 guidelines are more comprehensive and contain well-stated indicators and parameters. CPI and PISD teams use customized versions of G3 indicators. So far, more than 10 reports have been submitted for approval to respective industries and will be published in due course of time. A survey of the industry is conducted through its outreach mechanism through the liaison person in the industry, Human Resource and Accounts departments, a top management representative and workers' representatives. The data is collected in one or two visits along with the pictorial session. The missing data is collected later on in liaison with the contact person in the industry. CPI Challenges The main problems that the CPI's CSR team faces are as follows: The CSR reporting is a brand new idea for most of the local industry. A lot of time is wasted in developing a rapport with the management and confidence building to sell the new idea. The economic data is readily available with the public limited companies while private companies either don't want to retrieve, share and publish their data or they provide fake data. The hindrances in publication include religious, social and cultural values. For example, many people are reluctant to show off their philanthropy while many directors give away money in their individual capacity and the corporate philanthropic spending is either negligible or is not documented in their organization. It is very difficult to make a business case for CSR reporting and as yet intangible benefits are not lucrative for the local SMEs.

One of the important benefits of CSR reporting is Brand Image Development. Since most of the local industry don't have their own brands, they don't see a business benefit in it. CSR and environmental reporting is as yet voluntary, so reports which are already being published in the Pakistani companies are mostly developed without an established set of parameters or style, yielding nonstandardized, incomparable and inconsistent results and containing a good deal of non-verifiable information. Although CSR reports are essential to give a picture of a company's social and environmental performance, they have limitations as tools for inclusive dialogue. The amount of complex information demanded by reporting best practice means that reports can make dull reading for nonexpert audiences. Still however, the PISD targets in CSR reporting will be completed in anticipation that the voluntary action is in fact more helpful and shows that business is intrinsically involved and committed to bring socio-environmental and economic welfare of the communities of their operation. References http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/n26039. htm http://kuliahlagi.blogspot.com/2007/08/ corporate-social-responsibility.html www.cpi.org.pk www.pisd-pak.org

About the Writer Arshed Rafiq is Communication Coordinator at the Cleaner Production Institute, Lahore office in the project of Programme for Industrial Sustainable Development. He holds MA (Eng) and MPA degrees. He can be reached at [email protected]

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what's happening?

Global Forum 2009 The three-day interactive summit "Business as an Agent of World Benefit - "Manage by Designing in an Era of Massive Innovation" was held from June 2-5, 2009, at the Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. The summit hosted interactive change methods, break-out sessions, and expert-led discussions. The purpose of the conference was "to unite design thinking with sustainable business practice and education". The attendees included more than 600 executives, academic experts and policy makers, and companies such as Ford, Cisco, Patagonia, Herman Miller, Wal-Mart, Procter & Gamble, Dow Chemical, and more. The following business schools also participated: Weatherhead, Wharton, Kellogg, Rotman, Copenhagen, Haas, Said, Rotterdam, McGill, and more. The conference was facilitated by David Cooperrider, the Fairmount Minerals Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at the Weatherhead School of Management, Faculty Director of the Fowler Center for Sustainable Value, and co-creator of Appreciative Inquiry. The conference hosted special sessions: A one-day Executive Sustainable Value workshop with Sustainable Value author Chris Laszlo and also an evening session designed by McGill's Professor Nancy Adler. In this conference, people could also participate in the virtual community by visiting the following link: http://bawbglobalforum. ning.com/ The major output of the 2006 Global Forum was The United

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Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), an initiative launched by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in July 2007 and signed by more than 200 organizations worldwide.

Social and Environmental

Furthermore, one could also participate in an on-going way and experience AI online, the iCohere collaborative platform and link up with amazing people attending the 2009 Global Forum.

Regulation of Corporate Social

This collaborative space will remain open for 6 months (www.flourishingdestiny.org)

CSR and Stakeholders

marketing Globalisation and Corporate Activity Protests Concerning Corporate Activity and Environmental Behaviour Governmental Influences on Corporate Accountability CSR and Corporate Governance CSR and Corporate Risk Corporate Responsibility and Triple Bottom Line

8th International Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility This International Conference will be held from September 8 - 10 , 2009 at Cape Town, UNISA (University of South Africa), South Africa and is hosted by the University of South Africa (UNISA). It will be organised by UNISA in conjunction with the Social Responsibility Research Network. The conference is intended to be interdisciplinary and welcomes contributions from anyone who has a perspective on this important issue. This time there will be a focus on the theme of NGOs and CSR. Although much work has focused upon corporations there is a growing interest in the relationship between business and NGOs and how this relates to CSR. The conference will feature papers on topics including: Social and Environmental Accounting Corporate Accountability Social and Environmental Auditing

Socially Responsible Investment Social Entrepreneurship Business, NGOs and CSR Case Studies and Practical Experiences Microfinance The conference will publish proceedings and selected papers will be collected for publication. This year, a doctoral colloquium will be held on the final day of the conference. The aim will be to give detailed feedback to doctoral researchers concerning their papers. Feedback will be specific to each person and their research, and will be given by an experienced academic in the field. The colloquium will be an integral part of the conference and all delegates will be expected to participate fully in the conference but the sessions will give extra time to presenters - to allow for discussion and formal feedback. This colloquium will be organised by Professor Dr Güler Aras. Following on from the precedent set at previous conferences, a Young Academician award will be made during this colloquium.

Full and updated details can be found at the following website http://www.unisa.ac.za/Default. asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentI D=19551

The target attendees for this Conference include Local, state, and federal government leaders

For more information, visit: http://www.brownfieldsconference.org//en/Page.Overview.200 9.aspx

Federal and state contractors

Brownfields 2009 Conference The National Brownfields Conference, which will held from November 16 - 18, 2009, is the largest, most comprehensive conference focused on cleaning up and redeveloping abandoned, underutilized, and potentially contaminated properties in the nation. The Brownfields Conference will feature 150 educational and learning oppor-tunities, outstanding plenarysessions, 200 exhibitors, scores of networking events, special training sessions, film screenings, book signings, and much, much more. Brownfields are rural or urban industrial commercial sites that are abandoned or underused because of real or perceived contamination. Communities across the country face the challenge of putting these idle sites back to work, from old industrial cities with thousands of acres of abandoned factories to rural villages built around derelict mines or timber mills. Brownfields are a valuable community resource that through redevelopment and reuse could easily bring important benefits to many economically depressed communities or serve as the centerpiece in comprehensive redevelopment strategies. There are plenty of ways that individuals and organizations can take advantage of all the educational and networking opportunities that Brownfields 2009 will present.

Financial and insurance providers and risk management practitioners Economic development officials and community development organizations Environmental and civil engineers, planners and public works officials Information technology professionals Academic institutions and students Real estate developers and investors Attorneys With nearly 6,000 registrations the U.S. EPA and ICMA co-sponsored National Brownfields Conference is the premier event of its kind. To create an exceptional educational experience, perspectives are welcomed on the most important issues facing brownfields practitioners, policy makers, communities and companies. People can send in their abstracts, proposals for complete sessions, or simply an idea that they think ought to be considered for this year's conference.

“

Many business leaders today view their jobs as entailing responsibility for the welfare of the wider community. These individuals do not define themselves as profit-making machines whose only reason for existing is to satisfy escalating expectation for immediate gain.

”

- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Hungarian psychology professor and author

This conference also features a dynamic exhibit hall and lively trade show. If your organization is a product or service provider, government agency, or just an organization looking to connect with thousands of decision makers, then the National Brownfields Conference is the premier business development marketplace for you.

tbl may-june 09 39

breather

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tbl may-june 09 41

synergizing employee goals

building teams by etsko schuitema for tbl

The premise the work done on teams at Schuitema is based on, is that one can account for the success of any group of people on the degree to which the individual in the group is unconditional in pursuit of the group's objectives. For example, people normally measure the success of an enterprise based on the degree to which it has produced a profit or a surplus. The question to explore here, is how does this profit or surplus come to exist in the first place. We use the example of the three bakers: Assume one has three bakers who work together in a bakery and together they bake a cake. At the end of the month each baker takes a slice home and the slice that is left over one could call a surplus. The question is, why does this surplus exist in the first place? Surely the surplus only existsbecause the total cake that was baked was bigger than what each individual baker took home. So the question to ask here is, collectively have these bakers given more than what they have taken or have they taken more than they have given? Clearly, they have given more than they have taken. That indicates that a group succeeds based on the degree to which the individual in the group is acting for reasons that are bigger than their selfinterest.

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This is true for any group. Sport teams succeed based on the degree to which the individual player is willing to forgo his own agenda for the requirements of the team. When this does not take place then one does not have a team, one has a herd of cats.

degree to which the leadership of the groups solicits the intent to contribute among the members of the group. While this is obviously true, it is also true that teams that are successful are ones where the member of the team goes the extra mile in pursuit of the objectives of the team. This suggests that over and above the leadership of the team, there is something that takes place in the dynamic of how the team operates that supports the contribution of the team members. In my experience there are 3 critical criteria for successful teams: 1. The team has a vision or objective that solicits the intent to contribute. 2. Each member of the team understands how their individual role contributes to orchestrating the success of the team.

It is very important to understand the site of this capacity that people can and do have to be here to make a contribution. It has very little to do with what people know or how they are equipped. One could give the three bakers the most advanced baking equipment or the most sophisticated baking training. If every one of them was here to get as much as he could for giving as little as possible, the group would still fail. This suggests that being here to contribute really is not so much about what people know or how they are equipped; it is an issue of intent. The next question is, then, how does one solicit the intent top. We have argued very explicitly that people do not go the extra mile for organisations, they go the extra mile for people. We have therefore been very explicit in claiming that the key attribute that distinguishes successful from unsuccessful groups was the

3. There is mutual respect among members of the team. 4. The behaviour of team members is fundamentally value driven. The Team Has a Benevolent Intent The issue of benevolent intent challenges the core of the prevalent view on the purpose of enterprises. In my experience most people think that the reason why enterprises exist is to render a profit to the owner of the enterprise. The implication of this assumption for the intent of the individual in the organisation to contribute is not very positive. Assume, for example, that you are an operator in a factory that produces the silver bullet for AIDS, both as a prophylactic and as a cure. This is a miracle drug. A patient could be on his death bed about to breathe is last, should he take one of these pills,

he will be walking around within hours. Further to this, if a person should take this pill once they will never get AIDS. However, you and your colleagues are not very inspired by your jobs and you really do the minimum that is required, and this is noticed by management. One day the general manager of the plant has a brilliant insight as to how enthuse the workforce regarding the work done in the factory and calls a big meeting the cafeteria. In the course of the meeting he basically announces the following: "Work very hard at making these drugs because if you do you will make a shareholder on the LSE very wealthy." If you were an operator in this factory you would probably be very discontented at this point and will more than likely want to know what was in it for you. However, should the general manager say something like "Work very hard at making these drugs because if you do you will save millions of lives around the world" you would feel much better about the job and be more motivated to go the extra mile. The difference between the first two statements really lies in intent. The first statement makes one feel like you are being taken from while the second statement really gives one a sense of making some sort of contribution, of giving something. We refer to this second intent as a benevolent intent. A benevolent intent indicates how the service or product of an organisation makes a contribution to the world. The interests of the shareholder are never enough of a reason to do this. Any enterprise has a benevolent intent which means that every enterprise is aimed at adding value to someone outside the enterprise.

In the broader sense, when groups are purely aimed at their own preservation they generally ossify and stagnate. Robust groups are groups that coalesce around a set of interests that are bigger than the group. Practically this means that people find it easier to commit to a team or an enterprise when: 1. There is a clear understanding of who the customer of the organisation is. 2. There is a clear understanding of the immediate need that is fulfilled by the team. This means that the members of the team know exactly what goods and services are delivered to the customer. 3. The team members understand what transformation the enterprise is trying to effect. What this means is that there is a clear understanding of the difference between the before and after state for the customer. For example, the transformation effected by a cement producer is the binding of aggregate. 4. The team members understand the benevolent intent of the organisation. It means that the team member can take then next step to see the implications of the transformation that is being effected. For example, when cement binds aggregate nations get built. The Individual's Task is Related to The Overall Intent of The Team The issue of benevolent intent operates on two levels. Firstly there is the issue of the benevolent intent of the organisation, and then there is the issue of the benevolent intent of the team. This second issue is, in a sense, a subset of the first. Let's review our factory operator. If we want to be assured that his job is mea-

ningful to him we need to tease the following logic out of him: Q: "Why do you run the operation according to a standard operating procedure?" A: "So that we produce the right amount of product to specification." Q: "Why should the product be to specification?" A: "Well, if the drugs do not comply to specification they don't save the lives we wish to save" What this means is that the operator has to see the line of sight between the task that they do and the overall benevolent intent of the enterprise. Only once this line of sight has been established do we have a meaningful task. What makes it meaningful is that the intent of the task is worthy, is benevolent. So, effective teams are teams where the individual in the team not only understand the benevolent intent of the team, but they also see how the task that they execute contributes to that intent. A subset of this issue is the issue of measures. Measures are helpful because they able the team member to quantify the degree to which they are going the extra mile. These measures are only helpful, however, when they actually measure what the team can influence. This suggests that measures should operate on two levels. Firstly there are measures that are concerned with the overall effectiveness of the team, and then there are measures that reflect the key variables under the control of individuals in the team. There is Mutual Respect Among Members of the Team When people suspend their selfinterest for the requirements of the team their demeanour is fundamentally co-operative. If co-operation between team members is the hallmark of effective

tbl may-june 09 43

teams then competition between members is its nemesis. When people are competing they are operating win/loose engagements with other team members which will eventually turn the ambiance of the team into a conflict ridden and hostile one. The outcome of this is that very quickly winning as a team member is pursued even at the expense of the overall success of the team. The behaviour associated with competition between members of the team can best be described as 'playing the man and not the ball'. The reason for this is that the competitive team member engages other team members in a series of win/lose engagements with the intent of winning. This intention means that the competitive team member wants to come first, and the their member therefore by definition have to come second. This person engages the other with the intent to put the other down, to negate the significance of the other. By contrast, a constructive team member confirms the significance of other team members. This does not mean that they are obsequious. It does not imply that they are putting themselves down in order to affirm the other. It is rather than they have made their own significance irrelevant. Rather, in every interaction with the other team members they grant significance to the other. The single word that captures this skill of granting significance to the other is respect. This is associated with behaviours such as patience and listening. The reason for this is that a patient person is able to suspend their own agenda in order to give attention to the agenda of the other. The Behaviour of Team Members is Value Driven When a person is value driven in

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their behaviour they are able to differentiate between what is expedient and what is correct in any given situation and they act on the basis of what is correct. This suggests that value driven behaviour is a subset of the requirement of team membership because it is yet another attribute of the capacity to act for reasons that are higher than self interest. This further implies that there is a clear understanding of and articulacy in core values among members of the team and what the behavioural implications of value driven behaviour are. The limits of the legitimacy of the team's requirement to the team member's subordination to the agenda are reached when the team's agenda comes into conflict with core values. The Process of Building a Team Any team building exercise should be conducted in the light of the foregoing observations. A process should be constructed in terms of the requirements of the team, and will therefore not always include activities touching all four content areas, namely: 1. The benevolent intent of the team. 2. The benevolent intent of the individual's contribution. 3. The respect between the members. 4. The values of the team. This means that there should be a consultation with members of the team prior to an agreement of a process for a team building exercise being reached. Over and above this the process flow of the team building exercise should be as follows: 1. Definition of Criteria: The above named criteria are really common sense, and are easily solicited from team members

at the start of a team building exercise. Sometimes it is not necessary to spend a lot of time on clarifying criteria because the team trusts the facilitator sufficiently for the facilitator to stipulate the criteria. 2. Diagnosis: What is the current state of the team in terms of the foregoing criteria? This diagnosis can be conducted both in terms of the overall state of the team and the contribution of individuals of the team. In seriously dysfunctional teams this process could also include a prognostic exercise. In other words, the question to explore is should no intervention be undertaken, what would happen to the team on the basis of the above diagnosis? 3. Remediation: The remediation can also be designed to cover either what needs to be committed to by the team as a whole, or what should be done by individual or both. It is very important to complete the team building process on a note which the participants experience as an affirmation. In other words, it is sub optimal to finish the process on a set of to do lists that really confirm what team members have been getting wrong. The very last piece of process should be experienced as affirming rather than negating. It should answer the questions 'why it is great to be a member of this team' or 'why it is great to have you as member of this team'.

About the Writer Etsko Schuitema is a transformation consultant and a managing member of Schuitema - a consultancy about business transformation through business growth, based in South Africa and Pakistan.

pandora’s csr box

the case for banning csr! by wayne visser

I

participated in a strategy session on CSR/sustainability this week and was left wondering if we CSR specialists are our own worst enemy. Would more progress be made if we banned CSR? Would we be better off if we never used the C-word again? What if we substituted "CSR" with "risk management" or "new business development"? Let me explain what I mean. By having a CSR function, or department, or profession or career, we have created a neat little box for mainstream business to put CSR-related activities into - the CSR report, the ethics code, the supply chain audit. That has some advantages - there is a focal point, people to get things done - but at what cost? The problem with boxes is that people often don't think (or act) outside them. If environmental quality, or human rights, or health and safety, or stakeholder engagement is something that gets assigned to the CSR-box, there is a very real danger that everyone else feels they have been absolved of responsibility. Not only that, the CSR-box mentality suggests that social, environmental and ethical challenges can be solved by thinkering at the edges of business, rather than reforming the core. If the current financial crisis teaches us anything, it is that we have to fundamentally change the way we do business. The current model is broken. But what are the chances that business will change voluntarily? The answer is: extremely good! In fact, it is inevitable. That is because the issues we are dealing with - the breakdown of ecosystem services, the erosion of morality and the disintegration of social justice - are not marginal issues. They are business deal-breakers.

Put another way, the issues CSR is trying to tackle are business risks. If fish stocks collapse, or communities stay poor, or we have catastrophic climate change, or corruption is endemic - these undermine the ability for business to prosper. They undermine the enabling conditions for business resource availability, political stability, and clear rules and ethics. So when I say there is a case for banning CSR, I don't mean stopping CSR-related efforts, or firing CSR professionals. I mean changing the language of CSR and raising the CSR game - to the level of strategic risk and opportunity. This is not about greenwash and moral high ground. This is about competitive survival and future markets. Business will not (and should not) do CSR only because it is the right thing to do. Business should do CSR because it will go out of business if it doesn't and it will be more successful if it does. And if it just calls that approach "good business sense" or "risk management" or "strategic investment", rather than "CSR", so much the better.

About the Writer Wayne Visser is Founder and CEO of CSR International (www.csrinternational.org). In addition, he is Internal Examiner at the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry, where he previously held positions as Research Director and External Examiner.

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crisis management

business continuity planning can make us stronger by sohail khimani for tbl

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ecent high-wire tensions between India and Pakistan over recent Mumbai attacks have reactivated the urge to treat freedom as a blessing from God and take liberty to use it the way it deserves. Correlation exists between freedom and Business Continuity and though I admit that businesses are well aware and well educated regarding importance of Business Continuity, how many of them actually have a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) in place, is a whole different story. The million dollar question still remains, how ready are our businesses? We all need to acknowledge the fact that both neighboring countries have been caught up in series of wars in the past and recently both acquired the status of being a "nuclear nation" thus, increasing threat levels. Logically, increase in the threat levels should result in having a robust BCP. Unfortunately, however, the ground reality does not reflect the negative sentiment in the air. Although large businesses and multinationals take BCP seriously and local companies, especially banks and other financial institutions, are slowly moving towards accepting BCP as a critical part of the overall strategic goals however, the story takes a bitter turn when we take a birds view picture of what Business Continuity processes are in place in Pakistan, as a whole. The answer is simple: "No Plan!" We are responsible and accountable to acknowledge our freedom in the right way and take measures which can benefit the entire community. We need to broaden our thoughts and accept that we are fighting two wars - war on terrorism and war against economic crisis. As a nation, firstly, we need to be aligned with one objective - building Pakistan as an economic power. Sounds simple right? It demands honesty, devotion and commitment to get there. We cannot achieve anything by working in isolation nor can get out of liquidity crisis by levying financial punishments on the public. We all need to compete globally and gain exposure in the international market. On the other hand, we have problems with almost everything: shortage of survival goods, shortage of

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electricity and sound infrastructure and more importantly shortage of true leaders and planners that can really work for a noble cause and give Pakistan an eventual facelift. It is a universal fact that, by enhancing the business productivity, all businesses will prosper. In other words, if we live within our means and act proactively by planning for disruptions before hand, it will surely result in fewer disruptions, ultimately resulting in higher profits, greater customer and employee satisfaction. And yes, you guessed it - the solution to how disruptions can be reduced is having the Business Continuity Plan in place. Managing Risk Business Continuity, in the simplest sense, is about making proactive and reactive plans to ensure that an organization, country as a holistic approach, can continue to operate regardless of any interruption. In the present day world, 'Business Continuity Planning' is becoming increasingly important. Today, we are faced with multiple internal as well as external threats. In this fast changing, yet highly vulnerable environment, 'emergency preparedness' deserves attention. There is a need for making comprehensive arrangements for BCP in the form of instituting physical security measures so that operational sustainability of individual institutions, as well as of our country, is ensured. In my view, management supported Business Continuity programmes do involve an exploration of organizational culture. Effective programmes will utilize change management techniques to ensure that the organization encourages a culture where all employees are sufficiently aware of everyday risks and their individual responsibility to report, manage and mitigate risks. Once, we are effective by properly implementing Business Continuity at organizational levels, we can move a step further by embedding same resilient processes across nation and help Pakistan gain respect. About the Writer Sohail Khimani is a Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP) and can be contacted at [email protected]

on the lighter side "Green" Transit? Think Again Transit skeptics who also care about the environment must be enjoying a nice breakfast of vindication this morning. You worry a lot about the environment and do everything you can to reduce your carbon footprint -- the emissions of greenhouse gases that drive dangerous climate change. So you always prefer to take the train or the bus rather than a plane, and avoid using a car whenever you can, faithful to the belief that this inflicts less harm to the planet. Well, there could be a nasty surprise in store for you, for taking public transport may not be as green as you automatically think, says a new US study. Its authors point out an array of factors that are often unknown to the public. These are hidden or displaced emissions that ramp up the simple "tailpipe" tally, which is based on how much carbon is spewed out by the fossil fuels used to make a trip.

ble is, 82 percent of the energy to drive it comes from dirty fossil fuels. By comparison, San Francisco's local railway is less energy-efficient than Boston's. But it turns out to be rather greener, as only 49 percent of the electricity is derived from fossils. The paper points out that the "tailpipe" quotient does not include emissions that come from building transport infrastructure railways, airport terminals, roads and so on -- nor the emissions that come from maintaining this infrastructure over its operational lifetime. These often-unacknowledged factors add substantially to the global-warming burden. Droolworthy Eco Strctures The Dragonfly is a 128-floor vertical farm concept that will definitely get locavores drooling. Conceived by Vincent Callebaut Architectures, the building supports housing, offices, laboratories and and twenty-eight different agricultural fields. It completely sustains itself using solar-power, wind-power, and captured rain water.

Environmental engineers Mikhail Chester and Arpad Horvath at the University of California at Davis say that when these costs are included, a more complex and challenging picture emerges. In some circumstances, for instance, it could be more ecofriendly to drive into a city - even in an SUV, the bete noire of green groups - rather than take a suburban train. It depends on seat occupancy and the underlying carbon cost of the mode of transport. The pair give an example of how the use of oil, gas or coal to generate electricity to power trains can skew the picture. Boston has a metro system with high energy efficiency. The trou-

Caribbean Coral Reefs 'Flattened' Over The Past 40 Years You know those underwater pictures of pretty branched coral rising up from reefs in the Caribbean? Well that lovely coral is all but gone. Recent research suggests branched coral, which looks like underwater trees, has been replaced by short, rival species. The culprit? In part, climate change. Researchers from the University of East Anglia poured over 500 surveys from the past 40 years. About 200 Caribbean reefs were included in the surveys examined. Researchers discovered that the "flattening" of the reefs began in the late 1970s when white-band disease plagued reefs, killing 90 percent of elkhorn and staghorn corals-some of the most spectacular of the branched bunch. Then a decade ago, most of the remaining branched coral was killed by widespread bleaching. So-called weedy coral speciessmall, with short life spansmoved in and choked out the miniscule populations of branched coral that had somehow survived. Bleaching occurs when coral expel algae, usually because the water temperature is too warm, which we know is linked to climate change.

Vertical Park Source: Arch Daily

This stackable skyscraper concept designed by Jorge Hernandez de la Garza is eco-Tetris for the evergrowing Mexico City. The Vertical Park has sky gardens, space for both public and private use, and it recycles all of its own water.

Branched coral is now found on fewer than 25 percent of Caribbean reefs, a stark contrast to the relatively healthy reefs in the Indian Pacific, where human habitation is sparse. Compiled by Rutaba Ahmed

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musings

waste not, want not? by praetor for tbl

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bout 353,000 babies are born every single day in the world. About 146,000 people die each day globally. So in round numbers, the world population is growing by about 200,000 people every day or a million every 5 days. Given that the Planet's natural resources are limited, common sense dictates that waste should be avoided and all resources should be used judiciously. Is this happening and are the developed and educated countries leading by example? In the world of business and commerce, is corporate social responsibility effectively addressing the issues of dwindling resources and a burgeoning humanity? Capitalism regards corporate social responsibility as a business practice, or even as a concept, illogical. Milton Friedman as long ago as 1970 spoke for all capitalists in the world when he stated, quite unequivocally that "few trends could so thoroughly undermine the very foundations of our free society as the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible." The iconic capitalist society, the U.S. of A, believes in a waste economy. The more you waste, the more you will produce. Growth is a function of waste. Everything in America is over-sized. Steaks, cars, buildings, people. The U.S. ranks as the 9th most obese nation on the third rock from the Sun. But keep in mind that the first 7 on the list are all sparsely populated Pacific island-states and 8th is Kuwait. It is also the Planet's greatest user of natural resources and the greatest polluter. Al Gore, the born-again environmentalist, headed the U.S. delegation to the First Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, at the end of which U.S. did not sign the Earth Declaration that the other over 170 participating countries of the world did. But this is not about the U.S. That was just random rambling to make a point. While capitalism apparently thrives on waste, corporate social responsibility in terms of the pursuit of the triple bottom-

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line, urges you to optimize, reduce, reuse, recycle and in general, avoid waste to ensure sustainability of the only known planet in an endless universe to have life as we know it. Wasting can also mean over-extending oneself. In the case of the biggest economy in the world, overextension meant system crash and 750 billion dollars were needed for a bail-out, which is still in progress. Praetor does not speculate on conspiracy theories that today bombard us from multiple channels of information. Otherwise here you would next be reading about the conspiracy theory that holds that the U.S. economic-financial crisis was self-engineered. For whatever reasons. But no, we are not going into that. What is to be debated is whether the 'waste not, want not' tagline adds value or not to the CSR Product, as it slowly but surely progresses to becoming a major Brand. ISO 26000 is under preparation and will be an International Standard providing guidelines for social responsibility (SR). The guidance standard will be published in 2010 and will be voluntary to use. It will not include requirements and will thus not be a certification standard. Good packaging is a pre-requisite for a product to become a brand. GRI is of course already there. Has been there for some time. So Brand CSR will emerge with some solid credentials. But ingredients alone do not make you a major brand. The well-informed, analytical, well-educated and even cynical customer today, demands the Brand to demonstrate clear benefits. CSR too must fulfill this requirement. Perhaps even more important than this, given the rate at which human beings are multiplying as stated at the start - future CSR must address all humanity and not just the direct stakeholders. For the simple reason that unless big business takes the world along, its market will become smaller and smaller as the rich-poor gap becomes wider and wider.