Relationships or strategic partnerships between business and civil society are entering a new stage of development with an increasingly large number of interactions. Many questions arise in light of this debate, and a substantial number remains unanswered. The question of the boundaries of responsibilities between government, private sector and civil society lies at its core. Philanthropic/charitable relationships are still dominant connections between these sectors and they will continue to play an important dominant role. However, this activity is increasingly being complemented by broader and more intense interactions to achieve core business, civil society and environmental goals. This interaction arises from a new understanding of the need for comprehensive and integrated approaches to business, environmental and social issues that involve increasingly broader participation as evidenced at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in September 2002. At the WSSD the private sector pledged to work with governments and civil society organisations as partners to solve the challenges of sustainable development.
Further, at the WSSD many actors from developing countries have raised their concerns by declaring that their voices and views are inadequately articulated, hence their disenfranchisement from multilateral environmental governance. They felt that most ideas and initiatives presented during the summit came from developed countries. Even though it was agreed that most of the initiatives are good solutions addressing real issues, it was argued that some ideas would not be practical in developing countries. The training, experience and access to information required for meaningful participation is particularly onerous for developing countries. Both civil society actors and developing countries are struggling to exert influence, and are searching for ways to overcome barriers to participation and contribute on an even par with those safely within the confines of the multilateral process.
Business is a primary driver of economic development. However, their environmental and social impacts are said to fall short of international benchmark standards of corporate social responsibility when operating in developing countries and pose greater environmental and social threats to society. With this negative conception, it has also been realised that the active involvement of businesses is critical to achieving poverty alleviation and sustainable development in developing countries. With this in mind, it is believed that business can play a role in advancing the involvement of civil society and government in developing countries in sustainable development governance. Similarly, it has been argued that “Partnerships with external organisations are key to helping companies succeed at creating value through sustainable development strategies”1
Interestingly, there have been many arguments about the role of business in society but there has never been a universally agreed benchmark on what the role of business organisations in society should be. The paramount aim of this research is to examine the relationship between business and civil society in the context of sustainable development – oriented agenda setting and capacity building at national and local community levels in developing countries. Attention will be given to how business organisations foresee their role in society, essentially, in ensuring that multilateral environmental agreements, internationally advocated business ethics and environmental codes of conduct are observed in countries where they operate. Many companies operating in developing counties are said to fall short of international benchmark standards due to lack of legislation and necessary monitoring mechanisms to check the environmental threats posed by their operations. These developments make companies aware of the social dimensions of their organisations, their corporate image, their role within society and their duty towards future generations. Their environmental and
community development initiatives and policies may be seen in most instances as a response to the threat of stakeholder sanctions. Yet civil society organisations (CSOs) criticism of unethical and immoral corporate behaviour continues to grow louder in recent times. The clamour has led many business organisations to engage in purposeful soul searching for greater social legitimacy and to create new business models that could benefit from partnering with suitable CSOs.
The private sector is beginning to accept that prosperity, profitability and shareholder value alone do not represent the value of the company. The companies‟ ability to grow and excel in the long run is also determined by their improved performances in terms of ethically and environmentally responsible contributions to society. Major corporations are now fully aware of the increasing vulnerability of their reputation and are increasingly willing to engage multi-stakeholder learning dialogues to the cause of sustainable development in conjunction of their business strategies in developing countries. They understand that without ethical and environmental considerations, their legitimacy and ability to function properly will be questioned by civil society.
Partnerships between Business and Civil Society
Increasing demand for sustainable development during the last decades has initiated actions from governments as well as corporations and CSOs. 3 Governments have reacted by translating these demands into policies and laws, mostly of a „command and control‟ (CAC) type. Corporations have expanded the scope of corporate responsibility to include environmental issues in all level of operation, with a major development of environmental
corporate strategies, as well as a green-washing of industry has been observed. Palmer et al.4 suggest corporate strategy changes to enhance environmental as well as business performance of firms. On the other hand, CSOs have been providing an alternative voice by pointing out threats to sustainable development caused by business activities globally. Despite all these preventive actions a continuous increase in environmental impact has been observed. Global warning, in particular, has been considered as one of the most severe and difficult to handle. This has led to new initiatives and calls for business-society partnerships in resolving the global environmental and social concerns.
Development-oriented CSOs are facing increasing uncertainty and reductions in financial resource flows from international donors and national governments. Simultaneously, demands for services are growing as large numbers of people suffer from decreased government services and economic dislocations that are associated with global financial shifts. 5 In the context of declining legitimacy of government to provide basic services, particularly, in developing countries, pressures on private actors in civil society and the market to address social demands are increasing. Global leaders in the development field are promoting collaboration between civil society and the market as a significant new strategy for promoting sustainable development. Major actors such as The World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme and several bilateral donors are convening international forums, supporting innovative projects and advocating strategies for collaboration between sectors.6 For example, the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, in a speech to encourage business-civil society partnerships observed:
We now understand that both business and society stand to benefit from working together. And more and more we are realising that it is only by mobilising the corporate sector that we can make significant progress… Corporate sector has the finances, the technology, and the management to make all this happen. The corporate sector need not wait for governments to take decision for them to take initiatives.7
The ideas that increased levels of civil society –business cooperation will bring significant sustainable development benefits and substitute for the role of the state need further exploration. If collaboration with business is warranted as a major new strategy, it should produce significant impacts and be widely replicable across the developing countries. This section assesses the empirical data from cases of civil society-business partnerships in Brazil, South Africa and India as reported by Darcy Ashman8 in his empirical research and also examines some few cases between Japanese NGOs-business partnerships in Japan. It identifies the benefits of civil society-business collaboration and examines factors associated with the relatively more successful cases. The analysis suggests a more sobering and perhaps surprising view of inter-sectoral collaboration than many advocates working within the neoliberal paradigm expect. Corporate citizenship may not produce significant development results unless CSOs are strong partners in collaborative activities, and governments may play very important roles in producing successful collaboration between the other two sectors.