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JEDDAH, 18 October 2005 — A senior fellow and the director of Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, has given high praise to the Abdul Latif Jameel Community Services Programs. The fellow, Jane Nelson, has been evaluating instances of corporate responsibility around the world. She was impressed by the ALJ programs offered to women and youth, by the people working in the programs and those who took the opportunities. She made recommendations on how to expand and convince other businesses to become involved in the local community in cooperation with the government. “One of our goals is identifying leading companies in Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America who have good experiences to share. That is my purpose in visiting ALJ Company which is a member of International Business Leaders Forum,” Nelson said. She visited ALJ’s small business and micro-finance program for men and women and the handcraft shop run by women entrepreneurs. She commented, “I didn’t expect to see such energy and commitment of women in micro finance.” She believes there is great opportunity for exchanges of businesswomen. In the US, the fastest growth in small businesses is among women entrepreneurs. Saudi women can learn from their experience in setting up support bases. Three things are needed, said Nelson, the skills, the self-confidence and the enabling framework. The skills are a training challenge, and the self-confidence is a networking challenge. Despite her positive impressions, Nelson also noted things that needed to be improved. “Collective action should increase here. Not many companies work together. Also, the opportunity to work on road safety is there. With the high numbers of road accidents, much could be learned from other countries’ experiences. Another area is youth development. More could be done, especially because of the number of young people. There is a need for major commitments by companies to assist the country’s youth.” The issue of youth employment brought up Saudization. She commended the training initiative at the Saudi-Japanese automobile training institute where Saudi instructors are paired with Japanese instructors as a “training the trainer program.” She believes in raising awareness among Saudis of jobs and sectors which offer opportunity. Another area is self-employment programs. “A growing vibrant small business is the heart of any economy. Big businesses can work with government to create many small businesses.” The third component is providing credit. “One of the big obstacles is access to finance. There is real opportunity for Saudi banks to work with large companies and identify what the market needs.” Now that Saudi Arabia is entering the WTO, there will be a number of new challenges facing local companies. “There is a need for a support structure for small companies which might not be able to compete internationally.” Corporate responsibility is a relatively new term in the Saudi business community and Nelson said previously business schools had focused solely on profits but now there was a focus on ethics and company reputation. There is also a need for long-term risk management. For example, youth employment, if not addressed, will become an enormous problem; the water shortage, if not addressed, will also worsen considerably. Another argument is cost-efficiency in using natural resources and there is also the employee motivation argument. Businesses cannot solve all social problems but they can focus on certain issues, said Nelson. |
