International Co-operative Alliance1 ICA AMERICAS REGIONAL CONFERENCE Costa Rica, July 2008 Convenience and Scope of Social Responsibility as Public Policy Iain Macdonald Director-General ICA

International Co-operative Alliance  Co-operative Social Responsibility  not  Corporate Social Responsibility

International Co-operative Alliance

Bertelsmann Stiftung  Growth  Prosperity  Political Stability  Justice  Equal Opportunity  Shaping a fair and balanced process of Globalisation

International Co-operative Alliance  Where is democracy?

International Co-operative Alliance Jane Nelson - Harvard  CSR – a way a company manages its overall impact on and contribution to society:  core business operations and investments  strategic philanthropy and community investment  public policy dialogue, advocacy and institution building

International Co-operative Alliance The Economist  « the proper guardians of the public interest are governments which are accountable to all citizens……………… »

International Co-operative Alliance   Bad Governance  Weak Governance  Indifferent Governance or lack of political will

International Co-operative Alliance OCDC  Economic – alleviating poverty and stimulating economic growth  Democratic – providing a framework for democratic participation  Social – building social capital and trust, bridging ethnic, religious and political divides and providind social services

International Co-operative Alliance Co-operative Values  Democracy  Solidarity  Self help  Self responsibility  Equity  Equality

International Co-operative Alliance CSR  The ICA’s Statement of Co-operative Identity is the basis of co-operative operation throughout the world  Co-ops driven by their values have in many ways been pioneers of socially responsible business  However,  The movement has not done all it could in measuring the co-operative difference  Co-ops are not reporting CSR in a consistent way

International Co-operative Alliance ICA’s Global 300 CSR approach  We are attempting to developed a measure which incorporates the best aspects of mainstream CSR reporting while taking account of the co-op difference

International Co-operative Alliance