Corporate social responsibility and disaster reduction

Description

While the corporate sector has developed strong CSR links with the humanitarian community on disaster response, involvement in mitigation and prevention has been limited. ProVention therefore initiated a research study on the business case for reducing natural hazard risks in developing countries. The research was undertaken by Maplecroft, a leading CSR research group working with the World Economic Forum.

Activities

The project focused on the business case for private sector involvement in disaster reduction in developing countries, and how the growing interests of business in philanthropy and CSR could be harnessed to contribute to disaster reduction as well as the more visible and tangible imperatives of disaster response. Specifically, this research initiative

• Reviewed the involvement of business in humanitarian programmes, with the support of case studies.
• Reviewed the evolution of corporate social responsibility as a concept and explains where business humanitarian programmes fit in.
• Explored in more detail the business cases for business involvement in the different areas of humanitarian programmes.
• Made the case for a systematic and embedded approach to corporate responsibility and what humanitarian organisations should expect of business engagement in this area.
• Reviewed opportunities, bottlenecks and the difficulty of making a business case and the flexibility required of both private and public sector partners.
• Made some recommendations for consideration in future dialogue involving business and humanitarian organisations, including key actors that should be involved in any solutions.

Partners

The research was carried out by Professor Alyson Warhurst, Director of Maplecroft and Professor of Strategy and International Development at Warwick Business School. A number of key organisations active in CSR also contributed to this important initiative, including the World Economic Forum and the International Business Leaders Forum.

Outputs & events

A synthesis of the research findings and conclusions was presented at the 2006 ProVention Forum in Bangkok at a workshop session on 'The business case for disaster prevention'. The research also contributed to a World Economic Forum Workshop on Effective Leadership in Addressing Global Risks at the Davos meeting in January 2006. On 30 August 2006, ProVention hosted a session entitled 'Disaster prevention: a role for business?' at the International Disaster Reduction Conference (IDRC 2006) in collaboration with Maplecroft, the World Economic Forum, UN/ISDR and Munich Re.