A better tomorrow csr awards: Cheers for CSR champions

Three banks, three companies and five individuals were crowned with the inaugural "A Better Tomorrow CSR Awards" by The Daily Star and the CSR Window Bangladesh in recognition of their extraordinary accomplishments and efforts to create better lives.

In recent years, Bangladesh has seen a huge growth in corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects by both local and multinational firms.

This led The Daily Star to team up with the CSR Window Bangladesh -- a platform that allows individuals, entrepreneurs, corporates, non-governmental or social organisations to bring ideas to life that benefit communities at large -- to recognise the impactful projects that can serve as benchmarks for the others.

Planning Minister MA Mannan handed over the awards to the winners at a gala ceremony held yesterday at Le Méridien Dhaka, the hospitality partner for the event.

Prime Bank Eye Hospital, set up by Prime Bank, won the award in the healthcare category, while DBBL Scholarship Programme, run by Dutch-Bangla Bank, bagged the top award in the education segment.

The Environment Livelihood Programme for Conservation, an initiative of BSRM Group of Companies, took home the accolade in the environment category, while Nestlé Bangladesh won in community engagement.

The Best CSR in Financial Inclusion award went to Banglalink, while Standard Chartered Bangladesh won the award in the Covid-19 Response category.

Five young changemakers were also awarded as the Young Humanitarian of the Year.

They are Amiya Prapan Chakraborty Arka, founder of Dhrubotara Youth Development Foundation, a platform that allows youths to engage in social activities, volunteerism and policy-level dialogue; and Ahmed Imtiaz Jami, founder of Obhizatrik Foundation, which works on poverty elimination, education, health and nutrition and human rights in sustainable poverty alleviation projects.

Esrat Karim Eve, founder of Amal Foundation, which operates centres that teach sellable skills to the victims of child marriages and domestic violence as well as divorcees and widows was also named as the Young Humanitarian of the Year.

Tawhida Shiropa, founder and chief executive officer of Moner Bondhu, a social enterprise that provides counselling services to those with mental health issues, and Ratul Dev, who founded GenLab to engage youth from all over the world in the development process in their locality, were also awarded.

No government can go a long way without the private sector, Mannan said.

"We want to build an inclusive society. And we are working for improving the living standard of all," he added.

To sustain businesses, profit is needed but there should also be a focus on how to benefit people, said Rajiv Prasad Shaha, chairman and managing director of Kumudini Welfare Trust of Bengal, in his keynote speech.

"And those who work for the people, the society, the nation, and the world -- live forever," he said, while speaking about the journey of the trust and its legendary founder RP Shaha.

Time had come to gradually move to environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards from CSR, said Shehzad Munim, MD of BAT Bangladesh, in his keynote presentation.

In effect, CSR is the precursor to ESG. While CSR thinks about accountability, ESG methodology makes its efforts measurable.

"We have to embrace ESG and work on the criteria if we want to become a global sourcing destination and attract foreign direct investment."

Munim also touched upon the issue of governance, saying companies that were transparent and compliant should have an edge over those that were not maintaining them, and the latter should be pushed to comply.

CSR has become more relevant than in the past because of the global coronavirus pandemic, said Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star.

"It was a moment of great opportunity to reinvent and rejuvenate. The corporates in Bangladesh is rising to the occasion. Ultimately, it is the human value that actually transforms the society," he added.

If corporates amplified their CSR activities, they would be able to bring significant collective change in the country, said Ahsan Rony, co-founder of the CSR Window Bangladesh.

"This will definitely encourage us to do more. We always try to focus more on the impacts than the monetary value, and this is something we have been doing for a long time," said Naser Ezaz Bijoy, CEO of Standard Chartered Bangladesh, on receiving the award.

Corporates were the direct beneficiary of the country's prosperous journey. "So, it is incumbent on us to give it back to the community and the country," he said, while calling for the adoption of ESG standards.

"We always believe in giving back to society. It is the core essence of Nestlé. Recognition of that is significant for all of us," said Deepal Abeywickrema, MD of Nestlé Bangladesh.

The partnership with Google Area 120 for Kormo has already resulted in remarkable success, said Erik Aas, CEO of Banglalink. "Today's recognition will motivate us for further efforts to support the youth of the country," he added.

The people and the companies that have done so much for the country should be encouraged and supported more, said Alihussain Akberali, chairman of BSRM Group.

"And their voices should be heard -- our letters should not be in the box of the government offices," he added.

The award will encourage the Prime Bank family to continue with the good work, to have a positive impact on the society and the people they serve, said Hassan O Rashid, MD and CEO of Prime Bank.

"Although we don't want to expect any return for the CSR activities we have been doing for a long time, we are very delighted to have won the award. This will encourage us," said Abul Kashem Md. Shirin, MD and CEO of Dutch-Bangla Bank.

IDLC Water Ambulance of IDLC Finance, the Ucchash School of IPDC Finance, the Plant For Planet of Epyllion Group, Swapno of Marico, the Food and Nutrition Support Programme of Confidence Group and the Child Online Safety of Grameenphone received the honourable mention in the six categories.

Khayam Sanu Sandhi and his team performed at the event.

Banglalink 
Best CSR in Financial Inclusion

Youth unemployment is an epidemic in Bangladesh, and with the view to being a part of the solution, Banglalink in 2018 teamed up with Google Area 120 to set up Kormo, a platform that matches job seekers with their preferred jobs.

At select Banglalink outlets, there are kiosks, where Kormo representatives provide personalised career development advice, and guide them on how to create a CV and apply for jobs.

Later, a Kormo app was rolled out, where aspiring job seekers can get the same services. More than 70,000 job seekers have applied through the app so far.

Kormo has introduced online job fair partnerships with Banglalink, too. More than 50 employers have participated in each job fair with 60 to 70 live jobs. On average, 40,000 job seekers applied for jobs in the online job fairs and a good number of them matched with their desired jobs.

Another signature programme is the bi-weekly "Meet with Experts", where local market experts share their experience and career journey with job seekers. So far, 15,000 job seekers have directly benefited from this online show.

In so doing, Banglalink is promoting financial inclusion and community engagement, making it the prime candidate for the award.

BSRM
Best CSR in Environment

In 2013, with the view to preventing forest devastation, BSRM took up the Livelihood Programme for Conservation in partnership with Young Power in Social Action.

The project found and created income-generating opportunities for communities dependent on felling trees and selling wood to brick mills for income.

The income-generation project targets the poor and mostly landless communities in Mirsarai, Chattogram.

The project identifies families to provide capacity-building support and pays them a seed fund to start their own agricultural income.

Presently, 6,940 households are enrolled in income-generating activities, which include nursery, vegetable cultivation, gardening, crop cultivation, cattle rearing and fishery.

Since the households do not fell trees for income, an estimated 55,520 trees are preserved, adding to local biodiversity.

BSRM Group of Companies have provided about Tk 1.2 crore since the start of the project overseen by YPSA in 2013. The amount is used as revolving funds.

So far, the beneficiaries pay back all owed funds in full and have seen an average increase of Tk 2,930 per household in monthly disposable income.

BSRM's activities in forest conservation make it the ideal candidate for the opening edition of the award.

Dutch-Bangla Bank
Best CSR in Education

Since 1995, Dutch-Bangla Bank has been providing one of the country's biggest CSR-funded scholarships. So far, a total of 62,752 meritorious students in need of financial support received Tk 427.2 crore from the fund.

Each awardee receives monthly tuition fees and an annual grant for study materials and uniforms from the HSC until Masters graduation.

An expert CSR panel at Dutch-Bangla bank assesses the academic performance, financial status and physical condition of the applicants before awarding the monthly stipend, which is subject to renewal each year.

As much as 90 percent of the scholarships are given to students from rural and remote areas as part of the efforts to encourage education at the grassroots level.

And half of the recipients in each batch are female, while 10 to 15 percent of the fund is awarded to physically challenged students.

So far, 15,245 students have finished their university degrees and are well set in their careers. 

Its sustained effort in empowering the underprivileged in Bangladesh with the gift of education by way of its CSR activities makes Dutch-Bangla Bank the top contender for the award.

Nestlé
Best CSR in Community Engagement

In 2008, Nestlé took up the "Sustainable Sourcing for Farmers" programme to build capacity and agricultural knowledge of farmers in rural communities with the eventual aim of shifting to 100 percent local sourcing of their products.

This would give farmers access to international-quality harvests that give them a safeguard for their income, and is one of the initiatives the local arm of the Swiss multinational behemoth has taken to enhance its community engagement.

Its other initiatives include sustainable sourcing of rice, training and developing more than 200 local suppliers in Rangpur.

In 2011, it started local honey sourcing by developing vendors and providing training on bee colony maintenance and honey extraction.

The company also started local wheat sourcing and collaborated with a local dairy farm and spice processors with regulations of food safety, training and farmer/worker payment requirements in place.

Over time, more than 200 farms underwent training to supply the company's requirements for produce.

Thanks to the new agricultural practices introduced by Nestlé, the farmers saw their monthly incomes increase by 10 to 25 percent. This makes Nestlé the obvious choice for the award.

Prime Bank
Best CSR in Healthcare

Eyecare ensures healthy and sustainable livelihood and is directly linked with the overall wellbeing of a person. With this in mind, Prime Bank in 2012 set up an eye hospital in the capital's Dhanmondi area with a clear mission to render affordable and quality eye care to as many people as possible.

Called the Prime Bank Eye Hospital, the hospital has been serving patients from all over the country with the same quality service, and in the last three years, has taken significant strides in reaching full financial sustainability.

It is also playing a pivotal role in addressing avoidable blindness in Bangladesh. It carries out outreach camps at Narayanhat, Bhujpur, Fatikchari and Chattogram and provides free and subsidised treatments to communities in need.

As of 2020, the ophthalmology institute has served upwards of 135,744 patients, with most of them coming from the low-income segment of the population.

More than 12,000 patients have successfully undergone eye surgeries, of which 65 percent came from the organisation's outreach programmes.

The award is in recognition of Prime Bank's CSR activities that are improving the quality and affordability of healthcare in Bangladesh.

Standard Chartered Bank
Best CSR in CoVID-19 Response

In 2020, Standard Chartered Bank had the highest CSR spending among international banks in Bangladesh, making it the strongest candidate for the award.

When the pandemic set in, the British bank partnered with multiple public and development sector bodies to reach out to farmers and healthcare workers.

It provided relief packages to 120,000 individuals, delivering 3.6 million meals and personal hygiene materials through BRAC and Kumudini Welfare Trust.

In partnership with OBHIZATRIK Foundation, it connected 2,000 affected farmers to more than 200,000 people in need of food through "Bina Poyshar Bazar".

The bank supported full medical expenses of 560 critically-affected COVID patients in SAJIDA Foundation and Bidyanondo hospitals and contributed about Tk 2.6 crore to Red Cross programmes for providing frontline and healthcare workers with PPEs and medical equipment.

With schools closed, Standard Chartered provided Tk 11.1 crore to UNICEF in support of remote education, for preparing education materials over TV and radio and enabling schools with remote video class facilities.

It also partnered with UCEP Bangladesh for the Futuremakers initiative, which provided 300 youths from underprivileged backgrounds with employable technical skills, financial assistance and job opportunities.