Developing a Business Culture of caring

Forum on Corporate volunteerism

 

  22 September 2010

Welcome

The Forum on Corporate Volunteerism on the 22 September 2010 was a huge success both for participants from Trinidad and Tobago’s Private Sector and those representing Civil Society. The United Nations Volunteers Programme (UNV) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) welcomed close to 50 volunteer managers, corporate communications and community relations professionals as well as business development specialists from sector-specific associations such as the T&T Manufacturer’s Association (TTMA). Learn more about the Forum by reading the Final Workshop Report, watch some video highlights or enter our photo gallery.

We would like to say a special thanks to our speakers – Mr. Nicolas Galt (TSL Group) and Mr. Robert Riley (bpTT) for their thought-provoking and very personal contributions to the meeting, as well to our Steering Committee members for their dedicated and passionate support for the cause of employee volunteerism. The UNV team hopes that this workshop was only the beginning of a process of collaboration among national stakeholders and that other activities of awareness-raising, brainstorming and project inception will follow. In going forward, we intend to turn this webpage into a virtual meeting place for the corporate volunteerism community in T&T and a one-stop-shop for concepts, position papers, events calendar and other information.

The UNV Country Office Team

 

Corporate Volunteerism

Corporate volunteerism is a practice pertaining to the private sector that emerged in the USA in the late 1970s.  The principles inspiring corporate volunteering are related to the practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and are based on the premise that socially responsible behavior carried out by companies, contribute to the development of the society as a whole. Increasing pressure and growing demands for compliance with ethical standards coming from many stakeholders (consumers, investors, citizens, employees) have caused companies to increase their social engagement and to adopt socially and environmentally responsible behavior. It therefore seems desirable that any sensitive corporate response to these demands should include a greater degree of corporate volunteering for the benefit of the community. This can be achieved  both through  activities carried out by  employees ,who volunteer their time and energy, but also through the commitment of the company itself, utilizing its human and financial resources to serve the community as part of its job. 

 It is now widely acknowledged that the private sector needs to shoulder some of the responsibility for social development and environmental protection. This can be achieved by adhering to collectively agreed ethical standards and through the integration of environmental, social and economic concerns into a company’s business strategy. The World Bank Institute in its report Business Action for the MDGs: Private Sector Involvement as a Vital Factor in Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (2005) stressed the fact that “business can contribute to accelerating the rise in income and opportunity also by volunteering talent and time toward a particular issue”. And according to research carried out by UNDP and the UWI Institute of Business, volunteerism and “employee skills and time to support local communities and strengthen the work of local developmental organizations” are among the key areas in which businesses can make an important contribution to the achievement of the MDGs.

 In Trinidad and Tobago, a small island state whose marketplace is characterized both by Small and  Medium Enterprises (SMEs) employing 95% of the workforce as well as multinational corporations active in the country’s oil and gas industry, corporate volunteering can make a significant contribution towards achieving national development priorities as outlined in the People's Partnership's 7 Pillars of National Development as well as towards the successful implementation of the international development agenda and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

 

          

 

 

Contact Info

Ms. Rene Berryman-Sheppard, rene.berryman.sheppard@undp.org 623 7056 ext. 232