Citi, Nokia, DHL share “corporate social responsibility” tips
Multinational companies active in Latin America are boosting efforts “to do good” as they do well, helping local communities through programs often linked to their core business. Consider:
Mobile phone maker Nokia is working with software developers in Brazil, so that healthcare workers can use their phones to enter data onto satellite maps and pinpoint where people are sick with dengue fever. The information allows officials elsewhere to know where to send medicines quickly.
Financial giant Citi is teaming with nonprofit Habitat for Humanity in more than a dozen Latin American nations. It provides families with financial education, so they can learn to save, budget and manage money and better qualify for a home loan.
Logistics leader DHL runs a Disaster Response Team for the Americas that mobilizes after earthquakes, hurricanes and other events to help airports handle the influx of relief supplies.
Top executives from Nokia, Citi, DHL and nonprofit house-building group Un Techo Para Mi Pais (A Roof for My Country) joined in a panel July 30 at World City’s Global Connections to discuss the trend of “Giving and Helping: Corporate Social Responsibility, Philanthropy and Volunteering in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Panelists and attendees agreed that multinationals are playing a growing role to reduce poverty and other social ills in Latin America, but also face challenges to do more. For example, there may be a “disconnect” between what companies do and communities seek. And some corporate outreach departments don’t receive the full support they need within their own organizations.
“You need executive buy-in” for outreach programs to work effectively, said Lourdes Rosales, employee and Corporate Social Responsibility coordinator for software company SAP in the Latin American region. And it helps to ask company employees how they would like to contribute, perhaps by teaching in schools, to best mobilize staff to volunteer their time and talents, Rosales said.
To help in Latin America, companies are increasingly linking outreach to their core business and professional expertise. For example, phone maker Nokia is joining with Brazil’s Silicon Valley and non-profits to develop new software applications to address problems in health, education and the environment, said Natalia Riquelme, head of corporate social investment for Nokia in Latin America.
Riquelme looks to local nonprofits to help Nokia define the types of phone applications that can help their communities and where the company might best invest. But sometimes, local groups approach her unsolicited for help without first doing their homework – without reading the company website or looking at what Nokia works on. Those groups often ask for help in areas outside Nokia’s realm and, then, are disappointed in not obtaining assistance.
“We want to help, but we want it to be realistic and scale-able to help more people from the business side,” Riquelme said, urging local groups to study company programs first up to boost their chances for assistance.
Local groups also can gain when they offer measurable results. In helping with micro-loans, Citi Latin America, said Carlos Parra, corporate responsibility officer, looks for non-profits to answer such questions as: How much are you going to increase household income? At how many households?
“Our goal is to reduce the number of people that live on less than $2 a day,” Parra said, referring to the oft-cited threshold for abject poverty.
For corporate executives involved with social programs, the personal rewards abound.
Gilberto Castro, who runs DHL’s Disaster Response Team for the Americas, said it’s worth all the stress to work long hours at airports after a hurricane or earthquake, because you know “at the end, some kid is waiting for that food you are off-loading from the shrink wrap.”
Ignacio Gonzalez, the Miami-based director of development for Un Techo para Mi Pais, said from his volunteer and professional efforts to reduce poverty: “You get more than what you’re giving.”
Global Connections is one of six event series hosted by media company WorldCity that bring together executives to discuss international business topics. The series is sponsored by Florida International University’s School of Business Administration and by Waterford at Blue Lagoon, with table sponsors The Beacon Council, Chevron and Wendy’s. The next event is Sept. 24.