[By Isabel Kelly, published online September 10, 2016, Journal of Human Rights Practice, Oxford Journals, OUP]

Is the Time Right for Human Rights NGOs to Collaborate with Businesses that Want to Stop Dabbling with ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ and Start Making Social Impact?

Link to full text

Based on the author’s 12 years of working in a corporate foundation, this policy note provides an overview of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in its many guises. It explores the benefits and compromises which may arise for human rights NGOs looking to collaborate with the corporate sector in search of new funding and methods of programme delivery.

The note is an exploration of some of the numerous terminologies and approaches being used by the world’s larger companies to engage in a positive way with the communities in which they operate and have influence.

It identifies how corporate good intentions can be misguided, or even clash with the long-term strategic work being carried out by NGOs, and provide new challenges for the people delivering that work. In conclusion, the note highlights possibilities for companies and NGOs to collaborate, for each to play to their strengths, in order to reach common goals for significant social impact.

Link to Oxford Journals

© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com