While CSR has become a touchstone of corporate trust and a predictor of business in the west and other developed countries, in Pakistan, on the other hand it is still a buzzword for most of the organizations and individuals. This trend has gotten momentum during the last many years but in the process of attaining the internationally accepted norms of CSR, businesses are either misunderstanding the true philosophy of CSR or simply ignoring it.
Multinationals in Pakistan are ahead of this wave, due to their international linkages and are actually adopting the standards followed in their head-offices in developed countries.
The concept, however, is still vague for majority of the people in the sector, most of them still regard it as typical philanthropy, some of them see it as basic CSR, and even fewer position their CSR strategically.
Even though companies are not very clear of what CSR actually means, they have been contributing generously for causes related to social development. Giving by PLCs that form less than 1 percent of the entire corporate universe of the country has increased 32 times since the year 2000.
While the numbers are telling of good things happening they never depict the picture in totality. There are still a lot of unanswered questions, for example, who is giving to whom and why, whether there has been any impact and of what kind, etc.
Questions such as these, among many others, need to be answered in order to present a more holistic sketch of the CSR programs in the country. Given below is a broad categorization of the types of CSR programs practiced in Pakistan which would help in shedding light on motivations behind charitable spending by Companies.
Political CSR
A company's CSR, in this type, is aligned with a political agenda. Spending by public sector organizations falls in this category. In this case the CSR spending is neither based on any analysis of people's needs nor do they follow any corporate strategy.
Globally Aligned CSR Strategy
This type of CSR strategy is usually adopted by multinational companies (MNCs). MNCs have their head offices in developed countries where they are well aware of the business needs as well as the social value of CSR. Policies are formulated in the head office and then the subsidiaries in various countries follow suit.
Externally Imposed CSR
There are many organizations formed by the government that are supposed to safeguard the interests of the general public, e.g., Securities and Exchange Commission (SECP), Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA). These institutions have the backing of the government and all the businesses are bound to follow the laws, rules and regulations formulated by them.
Philanthropic and Responsive CSR
This kind of CSR follows the 'do good' principle instead of following a well-defined objective. Companies set a budget to be spent on as-requested basis. Donations by corporations to SKMCH, LRBT, etc., fall under this category.