LAHORE: According to the findings of the recently concluded annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Survey by the American Business Council (ABC), members of the council have spent a whopping Rs 700m on CSR activities in 2015.
The survey found that companies prefer to focus their CSR efforts on people focused initiatives within their head offices’ province with the vast majority of respondents supporting education and healthcare. Other popular issue areas include women empowerment and disaster relief. The cumulative CSR efforts are estimated to have positively impacted more than 12mn lives across the country over the last 3 years. It was also learnt that the vast majority of member companies do not publically communicate their CSR activities to stakeholders. The survey was designed to develop an understanding of the focus areas of CSR initiatives undertaken by individual member companies and to identify needs and program areas for the chamber to pursue for the benefit of its members.
While each member company has designed its individual CSR program and area of focus, the ABC survey made it possible to identify the focus areas for members as a group.
“American companies are driven by a desire to make a positive impact within the communities they operate with the leadership team driving this effort, demonstrating that dedication to CSR comes from the top” said Nadeem Elahi, President of the ABC.
