Welcome to the Spring Semester Update from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative (CSRI). This newsletter summarizes our research and engagement activities so far this calendar year. Thank you for your interest and participation.

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Core Research Programs
Other External Engagement
Building Corporate-Community Partnerships
Events
Publications


CORE RESEARCH PROGRAMS

The CSR Initiative’s research focuses on two main areas:
(1) Governance and Accountability – to explore new multistakeholder models of accountability in addressing issues such as business and human rights and environmental quality, and
(2) Business and International Development – to explore how business, working with others, can mobilize resources for development, with a focus on expanding economic opportunity and strengthening public health systems.

GOVERNANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY WORKSTREAM

The Role of Business & Human Rights
Prof. John Ruggie, CSRI Faculty Chair and Special Representative of the UN Secretary General (SRSG) on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations, released his mandated report entitled “Protect, Respect, and Remedy: A Framework for Business and Human Rights” in April.  The framework set forth in this report rests on differentiated but complementary responsibilities: the state duty to protect against human rights abuses by third parties, including business; the corporate responsibility to respect human rights; and the need for more effective access to remedies. Prof. Ruggie presented his recommendations at the UN Human Rights Council’s session in Geneva this month. His work as SRSG was recently cited in the Financial Times, American Law Daily, The Guardian, The Economist, the UN Global Compact Quarterly, and Ethical Corporation Magazine, among others.

Amy Lehr, CSRI research fellow, served as an advisor to the Business Leaders Initiative for Human Rights (BLIHR), speaking at its April meeting in Bangalore and providing expertise as it develops human rights tools and case studies focusing on how companies can contribute to human rights.

Corporations and Human Rights: Accountability Mechanisms for Resolving Complaints and Disputes
CSRI published three documents in February that resulted from a multi-stakeholder project led by CSRI Research Fellow Caroline Rees.  The project is examining the role and effectiveness of non-judicial grievance mechanisms in addressing disputes between companies and those whose human rights they may impact. “Rights-Compatible Grievance Mechanisms” is a guidance tool for companies and their stakeholders; “Mapping Grievance Mechanisms in the Business and Human Rights Arena” is a reference tool on different models of mechanism; and “Corporations and Human Rights: Accountability Mechanisms for Resolving Complaints and Disputes” reports on the second of two multi-stakeholder workshops that helped shape this project.  One message from this process was that a lack of information about such grievance mechanisms hinders both their usage and their improvement.  Moving ahead, Rees is working with various partner institutions to develop a web-based interface that could help address these information barriers.

New Directions in Environmental Accountability
Working with the Regulatory Policy Program at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, CSRI Executive Director Jennifer Nash is examining why some firms choose to participate in voluntary initiatives, the potential of these approaches to engage large numbers of firms as members, and the best ways to measure results.  This work has led to several new working papers, listed in the Publications section below. Voluntary initiatives are proliferating at the federal and state levels, and agencies are collecting substantial amounts of information about their impacts.


BUSINESS AND INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSTREAM

Expanding Economic Opportunity
Beth Jenkins, Director of Policy Studies, is working with the International Finance Corporation to author a report on the development of “mobile money ecosystems” – the networks of institutions that must be in place for mobile banking and payment systems to take root and go to scale. The Developing Mobile Money Ecosystems report will build on existing literature and on the proceedings of the May 13-16 GSMA-IFC Mobile Money Summit in Cairo, Egypt. The Summit gathered nearly 50 CEOs and other senior leaders along with over 400 international participants from the telecommunications, banking, and technology industries, as well as government and the international development community. Drawing upon their insights and others, the report will identify key challenges and opportunities to support and accelerate the development of mobile money ecosystems.

Jane Nelson contributed a chapter to a United Nations Economic and Social Affairs Council (ECOSOC) book on "Strengthening Efforts to Eradicate Poverty and Hunger: Dialogues at the Economic and Social Council." The book highlights discussion that took place during the ECOSOC meetings at the 2007 High-level Segment. Nelson's chapter is on Business as a Partner in Eradicating Poverty.

Jane Nelson contributed a chapter to the Brookings Institution's "Global Development 2.0 Can Philanthropists, the Public and the Poor Make Poverty History?" The book, based on conversations at the 2007 Brookings-Blum Roundtable, discusses trends in the global development economy and offers suggestions to ensure lasting and widespread improvements in the fight against poverty. Nelson's chapter is on Affecting Change through Accountable Channels.

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OTHER EXTERNAL ENGAGEMENT

• John Ruggie has been selected as a 2008 Guggenheim Fellow. Ruggie will use his fellowship to conduct research and interviews for his forthcoming book about improving the human rights performance of transnational corporations. Ruggie outlined the "Next steps in business and human rights” in a speech at Chatham House on May 22.
  
  
• Jane Nelson, CSRI Director, has spoken at about 20 events over the past 5 months, including the World Economic Forum, the Global Competitiveness Forum in Saudi Arabia, the UN's Economic and Social Council, the UN Office for International Partnerships, the Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy, the Conference Board, CERES, the Economist, Boston College, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, the Initiative for Global Development, and the annual Instituto Ethos Conference in Brazil. She also delivered the annual 2008 Ellsworth Lecture at the University of Hartford, sponsored by the University's President's Office, and spoke at corporate events hosted by KPMG, Microsoft, Merck, De Beers and Nestlé.
  
  
• Jennifer Nash gave a talk on defining and measuring the results of environmental leadership programs at the National Environmental Partnership Summit in May in Baltimore. She will also be speaking about systematic approaches to building evaluation capacity at the 2008 Environmental Evaluators Network Forum later this June.  Her work as a member of EPA’s National Advisory Council on Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT) has contributed to the new publication, “Everyone’s Business:  Working towards Sustainability through Environmental Stewardship and Collaboration.”
  
  
• Beth Jenkins spoke on a panel in March at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development's annual Liaison Delegates Meeting in Montreux, Switzerland, about the importance of measuring the development impact of business operations in low-income countries. Jenkins also participated in an exploration of the links between Web 2.0 and responsible enterprise performance at SAP AG’s annual SAPPHIRE 2008 Orlando conference. Web 2.0 (which encompasses blogs, wikis, social networking platforms, crowd sourcing, and other technology and uses of technology) is emerging both as a driver and as a potential enabler of corporate social and environmental responsibility, but companies and their stakeholders are still exploring this rapidly evolving space.
  
  
• CSRI Senior Fellow David Grayson was quoted in January in the Times Online (UK) on CSR & sustainability and in March in the The Guardian on CSR & climate change.
  
  
• CSRI Research Fellow Caroline Rees wrote on Dispute Resolutions in January for Ethical Corporation Magazine.
  
  
• John Ruggie, Jane Nelson, and CSRI Senior Fellows David Grayson and Simon Zadek were all featured in Sandra Waddock’s new book, "The Difference Makers: How Social and Institutional Entrepreneurs Created the Corporate Responsibility Movement." Waddock is a former CSRI Visiting Scholar and Professor of Management at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management.
  
  
• The World Economic Forum published a report in January 2008 entitled "Partnering to Strengthen Public Governance: The Leadership Challenge for CEOs and Boards" by Aron Cramer, with Valerie Weinzierl, Richard Samans, CSRI Director Jane Nelson, and CSRI Senior Fellow Simon Zadek.
  
  
• The Smith Institute recently published "Engaging Business in the Community - Not a Quick Fix" by Geoffrey Bush, CSRI Senior Fellow David Grayson, and Amanda Jordan with CSRI Director Jane Nelson. The report reviews and highlights key priorities for action in the collaboration between government, business, and community.
  

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BUILDING CORPORATE-COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

• In February, more than 90 corporate leaders came together to discuss international corporate volunteering at an event co-hosted by The Brookings Institution; City Volunteers of New York; The Conference Board; the CSR Initiative; The International Business Leaders Forum and FSG Social Impact Advisors. Participants shared best practices from their companies’ efforts to support local and global volunteering to benefit both business and society. FSG recently published one of the first comprehensive studies of international corporate volunteering, creating a strategic framework to help companies develop high-impact global programs.
  
  
• In April, the CSR Initiative co-sponsored a workshop for New Orleans neighborhood leaders entitled “Building Effective Partnerships: Increasing Community-Level Resources and Impact through Cross-Sector Alliances.” The workshop was the third part of the Kennedy School Broadmoor Project’s Neighborhood Leadership Forum Series to engage students, faculty, fellows, and staff in the recovery of Broadmoor, a New Orleans neighborhood heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The goal of the Forum Series was to support and learn from neighborhood leaders and social entrepreneurs by sharing best practices in identifying, building, and maintaining successful partnerships. The CSRI-led event included presentations from four neighborhood leaders highlighting the variety of roles that partners have played since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in September 2005. Generous support for the Neighborhood Leadership Forum series was provided by Shell Oil Company and Walter Shorenstein, among others.

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EVENTS

During the spring, CSRI sponsored and co-sponsored 13 seminars by leading CSR scholars and practitioners. Agendas, PowerPoint presentations, and research papers are now available on our website for many of these gatherings. Our events provide a forum for engaging in the public, private, and civil society sectors with students and other members of the Harvard community through dialogue around emerging trends and critical issues in corporate responsibility, business-government relations, as well as regulation.

The following events were co-sponsored with the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government and the Regulatory Policy Program.

The CSR Initiative co-sponsored a John F. Kennedy, Jr. Forum Event with the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights, the Institute of Politics.

"Worker Protection in Global Value Chains: The Role of Government, Business, and Civil Society"

For a list of all our Spring 2008 events and presentations, please visit our website.

For news on upcoming events for the 2008-2009 academic year, check our website events calendar at the end of the summer.

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PUBLICATIONS

Since January, the CSR Initiative has completed three reports and eleven working papers. All of our publications are available to download on our website.

REPORTS

WORKING PAPERS