Nestle Pakistan Talks CSR

Pakistan is the world's fourth largest milk producer so its understandable that Nestle has such a large dairy operation in the country. Nestle not only has a community-based milk purchase system which entails collection of milk twice a day from over 150,000 dairy farmers, but has also a program in collaboration with UNDP to train over 4000 women livestock workers in rural Punjab, Pakistan's largest province, in primary animal healthcare. Nestle also has several other CSR programs ongoing.

More recently, Nestle has come under immense fire due to its bungling of the 'no logo fiasco' on Facebook, which really does amaze one as to how wrong even the best of corporate entities can go when dealing with the consumers and also how poorly some large corporations understand the new social media.

Eversince, Nestle has been trying to do damage control. And although not directly aimed at addressing the logo (or no logo) fiasco, this podcast of an interview with some senior Nestle Pakistan executives, makes for interesting hearing. Have a listen.

Calls for Stronger Monitoring of the Extractive Industry

Participants at a recent conference on the oil and gas sectors called for stronger legislation that empowers the government for assuming a stronger role in monitoring of extractive practices in these sectors. The range of recommendations was quite diverse and included providing provincial and local governments with a enhanced role in development of projects in their geographical jurisdictions, better oversight of CSR fund uses and reduction in 'payments' (read bribes) to fedual lords.

The oil and gas sector is an important part of the Pakistan economy, attracting substantial Foreign Direct Investment ($612m in 2008-2009). By most accounts, there is huge potential for expanding the size of this contribution and the Government has taken several measures to promote further investments including allowing for 100% foreign equity, easy repatriation of profits etc. (see www.boi.gov.pk for details). For all these efforts, critics including the Oxfam supported Participatory Development Initiative have argued that the extractive industry regularly and blatantly violates provisions for CSR as contained in the Petroleum Concession Agreements, which legally bind companies in the sector to undertake CSR activities in the regions where they are extracting oil and/or gas.

Civil society discontent against the extractive industry, both in terms of its impact on the environment and its implications for local population, is not limited to Pakistan and the sector has been at the centre of much heated debate and resulting in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiaive, a global call for action for responsible practices, established in 2003 and which outlines a set of principles for the industry to follow. Pakistan, despite its sizeable sector, is not a part of the EITI and it's about time that it should.