10th AFCSR successfully concluded

The annual Asian Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility (AFCSR) celebrated its tenth anniversary in a two-day conference held in Manila, Philippines on October 18 & 19.

Creative Crest is a long-standing partner to Asian Forum for CSR. Kapil Rampal, CEO, Creative Crest, is a regular speaker at the conference. This year as well, Creative Crest had a senior delegation present at the event.

With the theme, Strategic CSR: Creating Shared Value, this year's AFCSR was supported by an overriding framework and five core topics namely: assessment and formulation of the firm and its internal and external operating environment - culture, capabilities, industry structure, etc.; implementation that focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of efforts to sustain company CSR strategy; monitoring and evaluation, embedding and encouraging CSR and moving forward and a new framework that positions CSR within the companies’ value chain in relation to the roles and responsibilities of both internal and external shareholders and stakeholders with regard to company CSR practices.

There were over 570 delegates from 30 countries representing 210 organizations who graced the event and utilized a variety of modes including longer Q & A sessions, panel discussions, workshops, and a mini-debate, which focused on whether Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) should be legislated. In addition, breakout sessions were categorized under four special interest tracks to allow delegates to choose the session suitable to their organizations - CSR in a global environment, partnering and collaborating, heavy footprint, and Practical challenges.

Moreover, his Excellency Benigno S. Aquino III, President of the Republic of the Philippines, joined Asian business leaders in honoring the winners of the 2011 AFCSR awards during the gala dinner. The AFCSR Awards awarded Asian companies for their outstanding, innovative, and world-class projects and programs in corporate social responsibility.

For this year's AFCSR, a total of 175 corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects submitted by 129 organizations from across the Asian region competed for the prestige award which was divided into four categorize: health enhancement, environmental excellence, poverty alleviation and education improvement.

This year's awardees were: Pfizer (Thailand), for the Health Enhancement award for their project that provided micro loans, economic empowerment and integrated HIV prevention services for people living with AIDS. Link Management company of Hong Kong won the environment award for a project revitalizing an old city market. The poverty alleviation award went to Citi Pakistan for a microfinance project and Double A (1991) of Thailand for a project helping poor people and rural schools earn extra income by planting a fast-growing variety of tree. While Abbot (Singapore) won the Education Award for a project on science education.