Community Development through Corporate Social Responsibility: Some Issues from Selected Companies in Tanzania
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Date
2015
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Abstract
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is said to be of mutual benefit for
both corporations and the local communities. However, local communities
in Tanzania are either reluctant to cooperate or outright reject CSR
programs. This study interrogated the CSR management systems that are
in place in Tanzania to see whether they provide opportunities for the
development of local communities or challenge it, and if these
management systems have relationship to reception or rejection of the CSR
projects. The study was purely qualitative, that used interviews, focus
group discussions (FGDs) and observations to understand the relationship
between firms and communities, how the two relate and co-exist and how
that relationship could be improved by CSR. The study found that, among
other things, there are no common CSR management systems put in place
by companies in Tanzania, there is no common definition of CSR, and
communities are involved only at the later stage of implementation and
not in the initial decision making of CSR formulation process. The study
also revealed that CSR offers an opportunity to be used for community
development but it also partly tends to make local communities dependent
on the corporations. The study thus concluded that there is a clear link
between lack of community involvement and CSR project acceptance or
rejection by local communities. The study thus recommends the following:
companies should share power to define CSR, as CSR offers opportunity
for community development if communities are involved; there should be state mechanism to regulate funds used on CSR by companies and
consider this fund as cost rather than profit; effort should be made to avoid
CSR dependence for community development by Local Government
Authority (LGA) collecting taxes instead of waiting on the good will of the
companies in their areas. Lastly the study recommends that countries such
as those of SADEC or EAC should come together to form CSR policies so
as to have common definition and also gain power to enforce regulations
on companies.
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Keywords
CSR, Local community, Development, Involvement, CSR reception, CSR rejection
Citation
Mbirigenda, S.K. and Msoka, C.T., Community development through corporate social responsibility: some issues from selected companies in Tanzania.