South Asia Forum on Responsible Business (SAFoRB)

With a vision to enable NGOs in South Asia to coherently and effectively engage with businesses to address common CSR issues, the civil society forum “South Asia Forum on Responsible Business (SAFoRB) was launched in November 2007 in Dhaka. The Forum has representation from 15 CSOS from all eight SAARC countries along with external observers from Novib (Oxfam Netherlands), MVO Platform (Netherlands) and Red Puentes (Latin America).

SAFoRB aims to promote responsible business in South Asia based upon an agreed Frame of Reference (a common articulation of ‘responsible practises’ by CSOs) and it will serve as a common platform for CSOs in South Asia to engage with businesses in promoting socially and environmentally responsible business practices to contribute towards global development goals and universal human rights in the region. The Forum intends to attract participation from CSOs in South Asia and will seek recognition from SAARC for policy influencing.

The Forum is guided by a Steering Committee comprised of eight CSOs, responsible for for strategic positioning of the forum at respective national, regional and global level.

The secretariat for the forum has recently been established in CSR Centre, Dhaka, Bangladesh. PiC acted as the Interim Secretariat of the forum and coordinates Forum’s activities and strives to enhance its visibility at the regional and global level through various published articles and capacity building programmes. PiC had been instrumental in building capacity of SAFoRB members, to develop a common understanding on CSR issues in the region, among relevant stakeholders and enable them to engage with businesses.

FORUM’S OBJECTIVES

  1. Capacity building of member CSOs on CSR issues / tools to enable them to engage in critical debate with business and local governments and to act as active stakeholders who are able to negotiate their interests and needs using the Frame of Reference.
  2. Increase visibility and influencing position of the Forum in each member country
  3. Formulation of a communication strategy plan to disseminate information on forum activities and information on corporate practises to major stakeholders and CSOs community.
  4. Establish scope of cooperation and networking of the South Asia Forum with other regional / global CSR fora to enhance impact value in view of inter-dependency/linkages of markets
  5. Research and monitoring of corporate behaviour
  6. Campaign, Advocacy and Partnership with Businesses: The Forum would take up activities of supporting various member CSOs in their campaign and advocacy programmes and constructively engage with the businesses on the issues related to responsible business practices as per the agreed plan of action in accordance with the Frame of Reference of the forum
  7. Forum to participate in the process in creating an enabling environment for responsible businesses practises
  8. Initiate dialogue with SAARC secretariat to promote CSR in the region

For more information about SAFoRB and its activities, you may visit www.saforg.org or contact Ms. Shahamin Zaman at ceo@csrcentre-bd.org

To be aware more about PiC’s involvement, you may please contact Mr. Khurram Naayaab at khurram.naayaab@picindia.org