Highlighting the importance of the corporate social responsibility, experts at a meeting organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) on Monday have called upon businesses to play a greater role in preventing conflicts and establishing peace within local communities.
The discussion took place at a consultative meeting titled “Peace through Profit: Peace-building through Corporate Social Responsibility in Pakistan” organized by the SDPI in partnership with the International Alert at a local hotel. The objective of the meeting was to discuss socio-economic issues contributing to conflicts and how various business practices and economic intervention could help in conflict resolution.
Speaking at the occasion, Sindh Minister for Youth Affairs Syed Faisal Sabzwari said that Pakistan’s massive charity and philanthropy system still lacked a proper structure and was not headed in a clear direction. “Although government does have a proper regulatory structure but it lags behind in proper implementation and effective governance,” he added.
The minister also lamented the fact that national and international help for conflict prevention in Pakistan had only been confined to the troubled northern region of the country, whereas other conflict-ridden areas such as Karachi had largely been ignored. He urged the participants to adopt need-based and community-driven conflict resolution measures.
Dr. Talat Wizarat from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) highlighted how modern business practices exploited the resources and created conflicts by alienating the local communities. She said that businesses could only flourish in peaceful societies, and thus, it was in the interest of businesses to ensure the existence of peaceful communities in their areas. She also went on to narrate a horrific incident which happened during the Zia regime when weapons distributed by the state to local businesses in Nooriabad in Karachi lead to communal conflicts in the area.
The Engro Corporation Senior Vice-President Tahir Jawaid talked of inclusive business practices and said that businesses needed to be more accommodative to the local communities to ensure peace among the communities with the help of sustainable businesses. He said, socially responsible businesses could play an important role in establishing peace in the society. He advocated the need for a better regulatory framework to prevent businesses from exploitative practices that created conflicts in the communities. He also shed light on the relief and rehabilitation work carried out by his organization after the devastating foods of 2010.
Safwan Aziz, a researcher at SDPI moderated the proceedings and informed the participants that SDPI in partnership with the International Alert and Responsible Business Initiative had engaged businesses through their CSR initiatives to mitigate local conflicts in the society. He also presented key findings of an earlier consultation held in Islamabad on exploring ways of engaging businesses with communities in conflict resolution activities.
Senior representatives from civil society organizations including Shehri, The Citizens Foundation and the Lyari Community Development Project also took part in the consultation. They were of the view that massive inequality and divide within the communities were creating conflicts in the society. “This situation, keeping in view the weaker state response, requires businesses to come forward and play an even greater role in the social development of the country,” they added. They also called upon the corporate sector to end their exploitative business practices and stop the unprecedented drive of consumerism in the society.
