01
Oct
Celebrations and Holidays
This is to inform our readers that we’ll not publish any new posts this week due to Eid-ul-Fitr holidays. Regular posts will be resumed from Monday, Oct. 6. Happy Holidays!
30
Sep
Philanthropy trends in Pakistan - II: Charity for causes
In the last post, I discussed the religious giving trends of Pakistan. Religious giving represents a major chunk of philanthropy in Pakistan - roughly around 70-80% of the total donations. Charity for social causes or natural and man made disasters comes second. Social philanthropy is not a very developed concept in Pakistan, both in the masses as well as the corporate sector. Let me remind you that the masses can’t give much as Pakistan already has abnormally high rate of those living below and just at the peripheries of poverty line.
Corporate sector, on the other hand, has the resources to help. Donations for organizations working in the field of education, health and general uplift have seen a steady increase in recent years. While many NGOs are dependent on foreign funding for their operations, some are also receiving significant corporate donations. However, many corporate entities are still reluctant to open their coffers for social causes. Read more…
24
Sep
An interview with Ms. Valerie Khan of Acid Survivors Foundation: Working towards a Pakistan free of acid victims
Acid Survivors Foundation has been working on acid violence issues since 2006. The ultimate goal of ASF is to eliminate acid violence from Pakistan. Social Bridges recently conducted an interview with ASF Executive Director Ms. Valerie Khan Yousufzai to extract details about her organization.
Social Bridges: When did it all started. What was the idea/motivation behind starting an organization for acid victims in Pakistan?
Valerie: Well I got this idea after visiting a beauty salon in Lahore. There I came across many acid victims who were undergoing treatment (Smile Again Foundation). Since I discovered the issue, I decided that we ought to do something as well. Some British donors approached us who were eager to help but wanted us to create an NGO for that. So that was the start of our journey.
Social Bridges: I went through your Web site and found that your focus is on Southern Punjab. Do you have any plans to expand in other regions of Pakistan?
Valerie: Most of our victims are from Southern Punjab, certainly. But that doesn’t mean that we’ve restricted ourselves to just that region. We are also expanding to other areas. Right now we are exploring the possibility to expand our operations to Sindh, especially Karachi.
21
Sep
Social Bridges’ releases first press statement
CDF Software, parent of Social Bridges, and Telenor recently issued a press release in major dailies of Pakistan announcing the launch of our blog. The PR was aimed at creating awareness about our efforts and to engage with more and more people.
Here is the statement as it appeared in The News:
By our correspondent
9/20/2008 ISLAMABAD: CDF Software and Telenor Pakistan on Thursday announced the launch of Social Bridges (socialbridges.org), a corporate social responsibility (CSR) blog on the internet.
19
Sep
Top 20 Posts of the week - CSR, Sustainability, Greener Options
Social Bridges present a weekly rundown of the best posts on corporate social responsibility, sustainability and greener options.
1. Is a CSR slowdown in the making or is it just a hoax?
While we can have an endless heated debate on the issue but what should be an ideal strategy to stay responsible in troubling times. Osbter Lancaster gives us some tips.
Here is Social Bridges opinion on this whole debate.
2. Green intent is the key
Motivation and intent play a key role when it comes to green consumerism, isn’t it?
3. Transparency of sustainability reports
As we recently reported, a research discovered that the sustainability and environmental reports of many giants are lacking a core pre-requisite; sustainability.
19
Sep
Labour laws and implementation - two sides of ‘not the same’ coin in Pakistan
Safeguarding of employees’ rights and implementation of labour laws is now a deep rooted phenomenon in the developed countries and increasingly in many developing countries as well. It’s inconceivable for a western employee now to think about any cruel labour practices of the past. But for employees and labourers in many developing countries, it is actually an everyday fact.
I’ll focus my attention on the labour practices and employees persecution in Pakistan here. We do have ample labour laws and employees protection acts but often times they are not implemented in the true sense of the word. Many employers, including the global giants, usually come down like a ton of bricks when it comes to labour laws and fair trade practices. Take the case of Unilever for example. The company has dismissed scores of workers as they were demanding their basic right to join a trade union. As discussed before, this FMCG has some really dubious practices when it comes to the protection of employees rights.
18
Sep
Money vs Happiness
Samantha Cleaver from the WorldChanging team not-so-recently wrote a good piece on the infamous relationship between money and happiness which is worth reading - Social Bridges.
Imagine a ladder with 10 rungs. Now, imagine that the lowest rung (0) is the worst possible life that you could have and the highest rung (10) is the best. Where would you fall on that ladder?
If you’re like almost half (49 percent) of Americans, you’re “thriving” on rung seven through 10, according to the most recent Gallup World poll. Another 47 percent of us are “struggling” on rungs five through six, and four percent are “suffering” below rung four.
Looking into the backstory behind the overall estimates of “thriving” vs. “suffering,” we learn that the vast majority of Americans surveyed (84 percent) experienced enjoyment the day before participating. In comparison, only 38 percent experienced stress, 30 percent were worried, and 23 percent felt physical pain. A large percent (67 percent) ate healthy food the day before, 60 percent did something interesting, while only 33 percent worried about money. It’s these factors—not feeling pain, not worrying about money, and having options to do and eat what we enjoy—that are associated with happiness.
17
Sep
CSR slowdown to follow economic meltdown - 2 - Future hangs in balance?
As I discussed in my last month’s post that CSR efforts will not bear the brunt of the looming economic disaster. However, the recent catastrophes of Merrill Lynch, AIG and Lehman Brothers have again raised some very serious doubts about the future of corporate social responsibility. Skeptics are eyeing a near end of corporate citizenship if not a complete blackout.
Adam Jones wrote in the Financial Times that many corporations will now think twice before embarking on a socially responsible venture. He writes:
16
Sep
‘Decent’ working practices
As the globalization is becoming the order of the day and decent labour practices are the norm, researchers are analyzing the perspectives of fair trade and more importantly, fair labour practices in all corners of our planet. A recent research paper found that global trends, especially in developing countries, about labour laws and ‘humane’ labour practices are changing but not at a very encouraging rate.
The researchers focused on these basic standards:
Discussion is based on four core labour standards; the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining, the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour, the effective abolition of child labour, and the elimination of discrimination for employment and occupation.
The authors have identified three basic developmental paths for decent labour practices.
- Borderless Laissez Faire - Market driven liberalization and trade liberalization.
- Supernational institution building - Governing globalized markets through political integration.
- Multilevel governance - Embedding markets by new variable patterns of governance.
The authors have also reached some basic conclusions about the future course we can adopt.
15
Sep
Philanthropy trends in Pakistan - I - Religious giving
It would be an interesting fact for most of our readers that Pakistanis are quite active in philanthropy. Although the financial condition of the majority is in teeters still many would spend some money for social causes. The reason for this apparent generosity is the religious obligation according to which every person who has amassed a certain amount of wealth in a year is bound to give some in charity. Wikipedia defines Zakat as under:
Muslims to pay 1/40th (2.5%) of the wealth which they have had for a full lunar year, 2.5% of goods used for trade, and 5% or 10% of certain type of harvests depending on irrigation. Exempt from Zakat are a person’s house and personal transportation. Zakat is not mandatory on harvest if the total did not reach the minimum limit of about 653 kilograms [1], nor on gold amounts if the owner has less than 85 grams or silver less than 595 grams.
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