Stakeholders deliberate on harnessing local partnership

A conference with the focus on harnessing local partnership among stakeholders for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustain­ability projects was held in Accra on Wednesday.

Organised by the Centre for CSR West Africa, it drew partic­ipants from academia, business associations, the private sector, regulatory agencies, civil society and the media to improve and sustain CSR activities in the country.

It was on the theme “Shaping the future of business sustain­ability post COVID-19”.

In a speech, the Executive Director of the University of Applied Management (UAM), Ghana Campus, Professor Martin Gyambrah, said ways of conducting business post COVID-19 had changed signifi­cantly, and had the potential to affect CSR activities.

He said while COVID-19 provided industry players the opportunity to grow and become very successful at their businesses, others still reeled under its negative impact.

“Some businesses experi­enced leap growth, meaning they grew from stage 1 to 10 due to the developments COVID brought, but others are still struggling and we must find ways of supporting each other to grow so we can deliver on our CSR targets.”

Prof. Gyambrah observed that “the psychology of uncer­tainty” still lingered on the aver­age investor, with many unsure of where to channel their funds and the outcomes thereof.

He, thus, urged business organisations to build syner­gies with other partners while leveraging their expertise to grow as quickly as possible and sustain their goals, adding, “the days you have to survive alone are over.”

The president of the Associa­tion of Ghana In­dustries, Mr Seth Twum-Ak­waboah, said running a business in a modern society meant hav­ing the community in mind.

He said businesses looking at maintaining stable profits could only achieve that if they built a good and sustainable relationship with their staff and members of the communities in which they operated.

“For every business, what you need to do is sustain the profits so you must operate in a responsible manner that guar­antees access and sustainability,” he stressed.

Mr Twum-Akwaboah urged entities to undertake projects aimed at pro­tecting the environ­ment to reduce climate change.

The Senior Programme Manager at World Vision, Ms Agnes Obeng, un­derscored the need for deeper engagements between the public and private sectors as it positions every­one favourably in the local and international markets.

“This will provide us with an unparallel opportunity to lever­age our resources together for growth and impact,” she said.

 BY ABIGAIL ANNOH