By Ammara Khan
Director, CSR and Governance, Hill & Knowlton Middle East

Corporate Social Responsibility is a business practice which is growing rapidly in the Middle East – driven partly by a growing understanding and adoption of the business practices of developed markets and partly by the innate characteristics of the business and social culture of the region.

Currently, the drivers behind the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) philosophy in the Middle East region are primarily exogeneous, whether they are expectations from the wider international business community or traditional religious and social influences that are aligned with accepted best practice in CSR.

Awareness and understanding of CSR in the region has been growing over the past few years – with 22% of senior management executives in the Middle East now citing CSR is an integral part of their organisation’s reputation – almost on a par with the importance placed on relations with regulators & policymakers*.

What has driven forward the reception of the CSR philosophy and related business commitments is the impact of globalisation, creating an environment that is open to an increasingly sophisticated approach coupled with a variety of emerging social issues which corporations are beginning to become sensitized to and encouraged to participate in solutions.

To this end, governments and government supported organisations in the region have – as part of a wider effort to embrace quality management, good governance and best practice – encouraged corporations both domestic and international to embrace socially responsible practices.

Efforts throughout the region to enhance the awareness of CSR, include the establishment of dedicated organizations, conferences, seminars, and awards. One example of this is the Dubai Centre for Corporate Values. This organisation works toward fostering the integration of social, cultural and environmental concerns in the business activities of organizations in Dubai, and throughout the region. It has also developed a CSR Model, based on international frameworks and guiding principles that are also focused on the region's social and economic environment – and have been intelligently adapted to reflect the reality of the region’s business culture and environment.

TRADITIONAL INFLUENCE
Philanthropy and charitable giving are common manifestations of organisations' social agenda in Middle Eastern countries, whether forming part of a larger CSR programme or manifesting as individual activities of corporate citizenship for societal improvement.

These activities are driven by and rooted in moral reasoning connected to religious and cultural traditions such as Zakat (the Islamic requirement of personal giving), and used as instruments to benefit social welfare. These traditions allow for a natural transition into the corporate arena, resulting in societal expectations of philanthropic activity from the business community.

This construct puts society as the key actor for influencing corporate behaviour and encouraging CSR. However, organisations are increasingly realising that through CSR, they can contribute to the long-term growth and development of the region, as well as realise its positive impact on their business operations.

And there has never been a more important time in this region’s history to embrace such development or long term commitment – with huge unemployment rife across the Gulf States and beyond. Moreover a population that is very young – 61% of Saudi Arabia, for example, is under 25 years of age – places a good deal of pressure on education systems. Unsurpisingly therefore, education and human development are typically key areas of investment and focus in terms of corporate social responsibility in the Middle East with health and safety following close behind.

This is also borne out by research which found that 38% of Middle East senior executives said that their company had strengthened employee hiring policies as a social responsibility initiative in the last two years*. This tracks very closely with the results from a comparable global survey and shows the Middle East both maturing and narrowing the gap between best practice in mature global markets and the emerging markets of the region.

Unsurprisingly for a society that remains highly patriarchical, survey respondents also identified the management of CSR initiatives as being the responsibility of the CEO (37%) or the board of directors (27%). This too tracks closely with the results from the global survey carried out in 2004.

Economic development accompanied by international competition is accelerating the convergence of business cultures, though it will take some time before the local societies are driving CSR in the region. At the moment too much reliance and too much expectation is placed on the public sector and government to “cure all ills” – a legacy issue across the Gulf States and beyond - and which is rapidly becoming unsustainable in the face of huge populations growth and economic diversification. Change is badly needed to address the concerns and challenges of society – and this is not a responsibility which can be borne by the governments of the region alone.

The transition from individual social awareness and contribution as mandated by Islam, through the traditionally paternalistic approach of Gulf governments to the adoption of modern, planned and communicated CSR strategies is visible, necessary and well under way.

*Survey data taken from Corporate Reputation Watch Middle East 2007 carried out by Hill & Knowlton Middle East in co-operation with YouGovSiraj. The report can be downloaded at: http://www2.hillandknowlton.com/crw/downloads3.asp