Thursday, January 24, 2013

Vote for Me versus Corporate Social Investments



Its campaign time in Kenya. Politicians are out to seek our votes before March 4th. They are making all manner of promises “I will build roads, bridges, schools and hospitals” “I will ensure adequate provision of water and security, if only you elect me as your representative” “Do you see this problem, this is how I will solve it immediately you elect me in fact I will do it within the first one hundred days”. On and on they continue to make promises until the day we cast the ballot. We all know that many of the promises are never fulfilled.
 
Now I have been reading about how companies can engage in Corporate Social Investments. This is engaging in investments projects that transform the society and lead to permanent or long-term transformation within communities. This is opposed to Corporate Social Responsibility which is not long-term. 

Politicians will constantly fail us, yet the promises they make are good and admirable. One only wishes they were true to their word, our communities would be very prosperous. But we all know that wishes are not horses. 

I therefore believe that the promise rests upon corporate organizations taking up the challenge of investing in socially viable projects that will improve people’s living standards. Kenya for instance faces a recurrent problem of food shortage yet with proper irrigation, we can feed all Kenyans and even have surplus to export. A company can invest in community irrigation projects to make a contribution towards eradicate food shortage. 

For instance teenage pregnancies are a major problem in informal settlements within Nairobi. Well, rather than wait for the girls to deliver then move to help them, which is good, a company can invest in public education project targeting parents and teenage girls to ensure they understand and appreciate the dangers of underage pregnancies. The number of corporate social investments companies can engage in obviously outnumbers the promises made by politicians. I therefore believe that companies can make a major and significant contribution to society.

Again this will ensure that companies operate in a way that safeguards the interests of future generations. 

Have a responsible campaign period.

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