CSR Corner:

“Human Rights Due Diligence as part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Strategy” workshop organized by Fair and Sustainable Ethiopia

A half day interactive workshop was held on “Human rights due diligence as part of corporate social responsibility strategy” of private companies on October 17, 2019 at Harmony Hotel, Addis Ababa.

The workshop created responsiveness and harmony among the participants on the prominence of due diligence by producer companies towards human rights, social accountability and ensuring food security.

In the event, various companies and organizations such as; flower exporters, Celtic, Universal Plastics factory, Solidaridad East Africa, EHPEA and other key stakeholders took part in the interactive workshop.

The organizers; Fair and Sustainable Ethiopia stated that the business doing environment in Ethiopia is exciting but becoming a challenge through time due to the success of companies depends on how they respond to dynamism and predictability of its business doing environment. With this in mind, the topic of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as part of human rights due diligence become crucial to investors, stakeholders as well as customers in the market.

Thus, the workshop was aimed and emphasized in improving the response of investors towards their employees and their surroundings to ensure business sustainability as well as to ensure food security to the surrounding livelihoods.

Due diligence steps to be followed by the companies were reviewed and most common human right risks such as risks to workers’ rights, suppliers and community rights were assessed and mitigation actions were deliberated in depth by the participants.

A tool for businesses to ensure social sustainability and contribute to food security was also presented by Fair and Sustainable Ethiopia which was developed as part of the Follow the Food (FtF) Project. The business tool helps companies and public-private partnerships to gain insight on the consequences of the choices they make, improve their due diligence and social impact assessment, and gain insight how companies can contribute to ensuring food security.  Website: http://www.fairandsustainable.nl/business-tool

As a way forward, the participants and the organizers made a remark that all stakeholders should cooperate to ensure fair and sustainable businesses in Ethiopia and strive to ensure food security and improve livelihoods of communities.