At a time when the London 2012 Olympic Games have placed volunteering at the top of the agenda most of us are now reconsidering what we could do to help those in need in our local communities.

In the corporate world, companies have been encouraging employees to volunteer for decades. Today, most businesses support some form of initiative - matched giving for sponsored fundraising activities, local one-off volunteering events, contributions in kind, fundraising for a Charity of the Year or ‘Time Banks’ of company time used for volunteering. More sophisticated community investment programmes include employer led initiatives such as secondments, projects to meet team building needs, mentoring, becoming trustees/board members or probono support. These companies have identified clear benefits in developing more focussed, skills-based volunteering programmes with regards to staff retention, recruitment of high calibre graduates and employee training opportunities.

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It is a pleasure to invite you to enjoy this ‘Responsible Business Around the World’ edition of the CSR360 Global Partner Network (CSR360 GPN) Magazine.

In this issue, we begin by celebrating 10 Years of the ENGAGE campaign. When ENGAGE was created in 2002 by IBLF and BITC its aim was to increase the quantity and quality of employee volunteering worldwide.

The state of employee volunteering in the world was at a very different stage than it is now.

In 2004, a piece of ENGAGE research demonstrated that employee community engagement was developing in countries across Europe to differing degrees and evolving according to the national context in which it occurs.

Socio-economic and historical factors such as the role of the church, historical/political development of volunteering; size of the NGO/voluntary sector; extent of state welfare provision, unemployment rate; legislative frameworks; the 35 hour week ; the perception and trust in business and the presence of multinational companies were all influencing the pace at which employee volunteering was evolving. Even as recently as 2006, it was difficult to find examples of excellence in many European countries.

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Have you ever thought how different the world would be if poverty and stark inequalities did not exist? What is the role of business in developing countries? Can they be a positive force to improve the economic prosperity of a country by creating jobs, and developing products and services that meet the needs of the poor?

In recent years there has been some debate about this issue and there is an emerging theory that suggests that the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) represent a ‘latent’ market. There are both positive and negative perceptions on the role of business in addressing the bottom of the pyramid consumers as a new market opportunity. Can this be a win-win for business and the poor? Or it is just a way of justifying the spread of capitalism across developing countries?

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The recently celebrated Employee Volunteering Awards recognised European companies that have developed successful employee volunteering activities that help people facing barriers back into work. The Awards were run by Business in the Community in collaboration with 22 partners from accross Europe and is the largest project that the CSR360 network has ever undergone together.

Following the sucess of the award scheme and 2011 being The European Year of Volunteering, CSR360 Magazine thought that it was timely to run an issue focussing on Employee Community Engagement.

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We first highlighted the Millennium Development Goals in the CSR360 GPN online magazine in July’s issue in 2009 with the intention of raising the awareness and celebrating some of the advances that individual businesses were making towards achieving the 8 international targets. The issue featured several inventive and compelling projects which were recognized by the Coffey International Award in Business in the Community’s Annual Awards for Excellence.

A whole year has passed by and with it the somewhat inconclusive and disappointing Gathering at Copenhagen. More uplifting however, was the recent UN Summit which saw Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Heads of State and Government, along with the private sector, foundations, international organizations, civil society and research organizations making a new pledge to speed up efforts to achieve MDGs 4 and 5; Child and Maternal mortality.

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As part of the ‘BRIC’ group of emerging economies, India has experienced substantial economic growth and development in the last few decades, with its domestic firms gaining increasing dominance in global markets and economies. Along with its neighbour, Bangladesh, these two countries represent a significant proportion of the world’s population, with a large number living below the poverty line. Together they present a diverse range of challenges across the full environmental, economic and social spectrums of corporate social responsibility (CSR). This part of South Asia therefore presents an ideal focus for this, our seventh issue of the magazine.

Michael Wareing’s account of the ‘Seeing is Believing’ trip to Bangalore, where business leaders experienced life at first hand, demonstrates the real benefits companies can provide through their CSR policies and activities. Understand, for example, about how the life of the young disabled woman, among others, was transformed firstly by the great work of the Indian NGO and secondly by the implementation of labour standards within Marks and Spencers’ supply chain. 

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With a wealth of CSR activity amongst out South American partners and throughout the continent, we have chosen to focus on the Changing Landscape of CSR in this region for this our sixth issue.

We start in vibrant Sao Paulo, where Cambridge University Press are supporting the UK Government Funded scheme, The Prime Minsister’s Global Fellowship (LINK). Designed by the British Council, we learn, from Joao Madureira, Director Brazil Branch, how CUP in Brazil is opening its doors to young people from the UK to experience first-hand the drive, energy and competitiveness of the major countries of the new global economy.

On their return all Fellows automatically become part of a network of active globally-minded young people in England with a role sharing their experiences and learning on local and national platforms, to raise awareness of global issues. CUP is one of several supporting global businesses which enable the corporate phases of the scheme to be delivered making this programme truly unique.

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Anyone familiar with the world of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) will be aware of the ever increasing amounts of jargon used in this once niche area. Perhaps stakeholder engagement is one such term. The name is commonly used by companies, governments and organisations, whilst the true meaning remians unclear to most of the general public – many of which are stakeholders!

In laymans terms, stakeholder engagement means listening to, responding to and acting on the wishes, views and concerns of people who are effected by how you run your business. Pretty simple, when explained like that and you might think a top priority of a company’s approach to business. However, just how would you go about achieving good levels of interaction with your consumers, the communities in which you operate and your shareholders, if you are a multinational company with operations all over the world?

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2015 - the deadline to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is fast approaching. Although there has undoubtedly been measurable success against the development targets, such as the number of people living in extreme poverty in the developing regions reducing from a half to a quarter of the developing world’s population, progress has been severely thwarted by the world economic and food crisis.

The goals, born out of the Millennium Summit of 2000 have been adopted by 192 United Nations member states as a call to action against world poverty. They focus on such issues as reducing extreme poverty, reducing child mortality rates and fighting disease epidemics such as AIDS.

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The financial crisis that hit us recently is likely to be only the beginning of a global recession that neither will be resolved easily nor quickly. Such a downturn in economic activity will inevitably hit hardest those people and those communities that are already vulnerable. In a new report, the IMF says the world’s poorest countries are beginning to be hit by the global financial crisis, as they are facing greater exposure to the current crisis being integrated into the international economy than they used to be.

While more interconnectedness has led to economic growth and poverty reduction, this third wave of the global financial crisis – after affecting first the advanced and then the emerging economies - is now hitting the vulnerable countries through a downturn in trade, foreign investment and remittances.

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