Relatively new in the Arab World, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is one among the ethical practices which has already become crucial in promoting a positive image about a few Arab Macro-economic projects throughout the Arab business community. Still, Arab companies make up just 1% of the 4,650 organizations which are registered and have filed reports on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database (GRISDD. With the recent political uprisings in the Arab region, along with the international economic crisis, new challenges have came to the forth to shape new realities; yet, unfolding invaluable opportunities for modernizing the Business infrastructure in the region. It is on this ground that civil society, being the backbone of the non-state power, especially in a region where most of the political institutions have been either inexistent or undemocratic, could play a leadership role in monitoring and enforcing social responsibilities‘ practices on both public and private sectors; with the intent 1) to modernize the Business Structure in the region, 2) to motivate and preserve collective investments, 3) and to optimize the number of companies registering in the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database (GRISDD). This presentation talks about the unprecedented role Arab local and regional body of NGOs, which for decades have suffered from their regimes‘ oppressions, can and should play in monitoring and enforcing ethical practices and sustainable strategies of social responsibilities on the State as well as private-owned companies towards their communities, especially in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Morocco wherein most of the vital economic sectors have been monopolized by the regimes‘ entourage. The presentation will also showcase the UAE experience in establishing partnerships for a sustainable future along with the Lebanese experience in implementing CSR initiatives, and Qatar's ethical investments.

1. Corporate Social Responsibility in the MENA Region
June 19-20, 2013 • Istanbul-Turkey
Pera Palace Hotel
NGOs Role in Enforcing Social Corporate
Responsibilities‘ Practices in in MENA Region
Abdeslam Badre, PhD
7/2/2013
Johns Hopkins University & The Protraction Project
1A. Badre

2. Layout
O A glimpse at the development of civil society & CSR in MNEA
O Factors shifting Human Rights NGOs interest in CSR
O The two paradigms
O NGOs tactics with companies vis-à-vis CSR
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3. Evolution of CSR
Before the
70s
Corporations
had a legal
obligation:
profit making
1970s, in the wake of
the Lockheed and Ford
Pinto, and other
scandals, led to
passage of the Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act in
the United States, and
to the first wave of
attempts by the UN
Economic and Social
Council and other
international
organizations to
regulate MNC behavior
In the 1980s the
corporate social
responsibility (CSR)
agenda was
significantly broadened
when, in the wake of
Bhopal, Exxon
Valdez, and other
highly publicized
environmental
disasters, the NGO
environmental
movement pressed
home the idea that
MNCs must also
protect the environment
From the early 1990 s
on, human rights NGOs
and other voices within
civil society have been
calling upon corporations
to accept responsibility
for promoting labor
rights, human rights,
environmental quality,
and sustainable
development.
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4. CSR in the Arab World: same old oil in a new bottle
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5. Development of NGOs in MENA Region
NationalismColonial
period
Political /
constitutional
Dawn of
Independence
Social
concerns
Post colonial
EconomicGlobalization
Era
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6. How have Human Right
NGOs ended up working
in the field of Business?
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7. Factors contributing to human rights
NGOs’ interest in the business:
The most important factor is the perception that political and economic power has shifted away from
governments and toward corporation.
In the South MNC often have more economic power than governments, and continue to control access to
most of the valuable natural resources while maintaining power over impoverished populations by force.
Within NGOs, there is a widely held view that multinational corporations, already the dominant
institutions in contemporary society, are increasing their influence over the economic, political, and
cultural life of humanity while remaining almost completely unaccountable to global civil society.
A perceived shift of power formation -states to corporations and international financial institutions such
as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund
• The lack of social and environmental accountability of MNCs under existing national and international
laws
• The growing anti - corporate – globalization movement
• A desire on the part of some people in the NGO world to enlist businesses
• A conclusion on the part of large, International human rights organizations that they have been too
focused on traditional categories of civil and political rights while neglecting economic, social, and
cultural rights
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8. NGOs two paradigm vis-à-vis CSR
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9. Engagement Approach
Aims at persuading corporates to adopt voluntary
codes of conduct and implement business
practices that incorporate commitments to
respect and protect labor rights and human rights
as well as the environment.
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10. The triple bottom line
The
environm
ental
account
The
social
account
The
financial
account
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11. Confrontation Approach
Thus, companies can only be made to be socially and environmentally accountable by means of economic
coercion or through binding legal obligations.
Those who take this view look toward the development of a mass social movement that will compel
governments to enact enforceable international legal standards (EILS) that would make corporates
legally accountable to global society
influence indirectly those of the employees of their subcontractors and suppliers.
Companies also have direct control over health and safety issues in the work place, worker compensation,
and rights to organize and bargain collectively.
Companies are directly and routinely implicated in abuses of many important social and economic rights
control employment for millions of people around the region and are in a position to influence
directly the enjoyment of the labor rights and economic rights of their own employees
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12. NGOs Tactics
In practice, no NGO acts solely as an engager, nor
does any act purely in a confrontational mode; all
utilize strategies that fall along an engagement-
confrontation spectrum. There are at least eight
different tactics that various NGOs have employed
with respect to different companies in order to
encourage them to accept social responsibilities
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13. NGOs Tactics
O Dialogue aimed at promoting the adoption of voluntary codes of
conduct—the pure CSR approach
O Advocacy of social accounting and independent verification schemes
O The filing of shareholder resolutions
O Documentation of abuses and moral shaming
O Calls for boycotts of company products or divestment of stock
O Advocacy of selective purchasing laws
O Advocacy of government - imposed standards
O Litigation seeking punitive damages
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14. NGOs Tactics
Most NGOs try to tailor the tactics to the
target, based upon the specific characteristics
of the company’s position on corporate social
responsibility issues, but there are clear
philosophical differences between those that
favor dialogue and those on the
confrontational side of the spectrum.
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15. Conclusion
Unless they are able to mobilize two other important constituencies:
consumers and governments, NGOs trying to influence corporate
behavior by means of any combination of strategies and tactics are
unlikely to be successful in the long run
Recent studies of consumer preferences have consistently found that
consumers are motivated to avoid purchasing products that they know
are being made under abusive labor conditions.
As long as the majority of consumers remain either ill informed or
indifferent to the labor and human rights conditions under which
corporations produce the goods they deliver to the market place, no
amount of NGO pressure is going to produce sustainable reform
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16. Conclusion
Governments could and should be doing a great deal more than
they currently are, not only in the process of standard setting and
negative regulation, but also in providing tax and other
regulatory incentives that will reward corporations for good
behavior.
The NGO-led corporate social responsibility movement must
now move the CSR agenda from voluntary compliance to “soft
law ” approaches, and finally to rigorous national and
international enforcement regimes; but it is unlikely to be able to
do so unless it can mobilize support for greater corporate social
accountability from informed consumers, concerned government
officials, and progressive companies.
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17. References
Morton Winston, 2002. NGO Strategies for Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility.
Ethics & International Affairs 1 6 ,n o. 2
Kjetil Selvik, 2013. Business and Social Responsibility in the Arab World: the Zakat vs. CSR
models in Syria and Dubai. Michelson Institute, Bergen Department of Comparative
Politics, University of Bergen. Comparative Sociology 12 (2013) 95–123
Arabia Corporate Social Responsibility Awards 2011. GUIDELINES© Arabia CSR Network
available at: www.arabiacsrnetwork.com . Consulted on June 11th 2013 at 16:49
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