Philippine Business Magazine: Volume 9 No. 4 - Corporate Citizenship
Power of Three
The government, the private sector, and civil society unite for the fight against poverty
By Maureen Macaraig-Martinez

A year ago, President Arroyo highlighted the perennial problem of poverty before a gathering of the League of Corporate Foundations. A year later in July 2002, a bigger gathering of the private sector expressed their support to government in the fight against poverty. The First Asian Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility, which was held in Manila, signified the renewed commitment of the private sector and civil society to help in the government’s anti-poverty campaign.

Private Sector Share
In a speech delivered by Maria Aurora Tolentino, chair of the League of Corporate Foundations, she highlighted the private sector response to poverty reduction. Tolentino said the private sector’s undeniable expertise for three things contributed to the war against poverty: hardnosed, data-based strategizing; meticulous implementation; and decisive leadership to get things done. While the economy’s not-so-rosy picture is preventing private companies from projecting community project budgets on a long-term basis, the sector presented a firm two-year commitment to poverty reduction through the projects that they have each lined up in the different areas of social responsibility.

The consolidated figures gathered from 11 business associations indicate that over the past five years, the private sector has contributed some P7.6 billion for poverty reduction through basic human development services, livelihood or income generation, asset reform, and other social projects.

Along the way, the private sector has been awakened all the more that unity is needed among the business associations, the corporate networks, and the government, in order to accomplish the task not only faster, but more efficiently. The realization of this need for close coordination happened through the creation of trisectoral meetings. Tolentino, acknowledged the efforts of Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman, National Anti-Poverty Commission Chairman Ging Deles, and former Presidential Management Staff Chief Vicky Garchitorena, for creating the venue for unity – the Kapitbisig Laban sa Kahirapan (KALAHI) Program.

This, according to Tolentino, is work in progress. At present, the private sector is realigning existing programs or enrolling ongoing projects to the KALAHI Program that would keep the poverty alleviation drive going for the next two years, with business associations pledging a P1.3 billion contribution for direct poverty reduction initiatives.

Closer Look at the Initiatives
Tolentino pointed out several innovative projects and initiatives undertaken by various associations that will be needing constant fueling and refueling to successfully address the problem on poverty.

Nineteen members of the League of Corporate Foundations consolidated their resources to upgrade the library facilities of the Silangan Elementary School in Taguig, Rizal, a KALAHI area. This project dubbed as “Project Tulungan sa Paaralan” provided the school with additional books, supplies, new computers, teacher training, feeding programs, and health care. The group commits to do the same to other schools in other areas.

The connectEd.ph program, launched in November last year, is yet another project of some 50 corporations and organizations that continues to provide public high schools with computer laboratories, local area networks, training, internet connections, and domain names. With around 110 schools in the current list of beneficiaries, the consortium aims to develop an internet community of public schools that is fully capable of taking advantage of the opportunities that the world wide web offers.

The Philippine Business for Social Progress, with its continuous fund-raising drive from the corporate sector, is focusing more in the conflict-ridden areas of Mindanao, where help is needed the most.

The Philippine Exporters Confederation and Jardeli Club are proud to have graduated their first batch of Philippine export craft trainees. The trainees were given purchase orders upon their graduation.

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Employers Confederation of the Philippines are proposing the use of fabric swatches and older high speed sewing machines to train some 3,000 members of urban poor communities to produce items that can also be exported.

Then there’s the Children’s Hour, which in 1999 raised a huge fund from donations of some 84,000 individuals and 400 corporations. The project, which called upon all working individuals and companies worldwide to donate their earnings from the last working hour of the millennium to meaningful and sustainable programs for children, will be relaunched this year and will become a yearly fundraising campaign. This worldwide effort is spearheaded locally by Ayala Corporation president and CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala.

Other ideas are still in the pipeline, meant primarily to organize contributions that will come from smaller companies that are not affiliated with any established association, as well as ordinary employees. By creating a privately managed permanent fund, the unorganized sector of society can be given just as much chance to participate in permanent programs for the poor.

Snowball Effect
At the First Asian Forum for Corporate Social Responsibility, renewal of commitments is just one thing. More important is the increasing interest to generate more ideas and projects that will organize the private sector initiative in helping the disadvantaged sector of society.

Michael Doyle, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, for one, welcomed the proposal of the Asian Institute of Management to establish a Global Compact Resource Center for Asia, which will be managed by the Ramon V. del Rosario Sr. Center for Corporate Responsibility.

The corporate world has truly awakened. And with the government and the civil society working hand in hand with the private sector in making a difference in the lives of the people around them, they truly make an undefeatable power of three.