5.2. Create, collate, and disseminate relevant knowledge for each stakeholder
One of the most critical needs for all stakeholders to successfully leverage the CSR opportunity, which came up frequently in the study findings, is relevant knowledge at four levels:
◆ Knowledge and information for the ecosystem as a whole such as information on potential opportunities for NGOs, knowledge related to the CSR regulations,
“Frequently Asked Questions” released by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), and other legal briefings.
◆ Knowledge related to specific industries, including industry trends, alignment with other regulations, and best practices and models for CSR projects.
◆ Knowledge around specific social sectors, which includes updated data, gap analysis, primers that can guide companies to a suitable cause, best practices and success stories, etc.
◆ Knowledge on execution of projects such as strategy development, programme design, assessing partners’ fit and credibility, impact measurement, monitoring frameworks, and so on.
Calls-to-action for primary actors
◆ Invest in documenting and sharing challenges, learning, and best practices from CSR programmes.
◆ Report CSR activities at regular intervals and in detail, going beyond the template mandated by the law.
Calls-to-action for enablers
◆ Establish a common taxonomy of terms such as quality, impact, risk, scale, social returns, and so on within the CSR lexicon to create a shared
understanding between various stakeholders and reduce instances of mismatch in expectations. The new taxonomy needs to be developed in consultation with all stakeholders and could also include certain standards, benchmarks and templates, if relevant and desirable. The taxonomy needs to be codified after its creation.
Transforming India: The CSR Opportunity
5.3. Build and augment capacity across
◆ Create, collate, and disseminate knowledge related to following aspects:
◆ Information about social sectors―gaps, opportunities, and models that are either high-
impact, replicable or innovative in each sector.
◆ Practical guidelines on each step of the CSR project’s lifecycle, specifically how to assess implementation partners, how to understand risks in certain CSR programmes, how to formulate an exit strategy and a set of essential standardised outcomes tools and guidelines to measure impact.
◆ Create and convene forums for building and sharing knowledge.
◆ Large grant-making organisations could support the creation of platforms and marketplaces that bring together various stakeholders and aggregate opportunities to address informational
asymmetries. Such platforms could be focused on one particular social sector such as skills, education, water and sanitation, maternal and child health, and so on, aligned to the funders’ domain expertise.
These could either be online or offline or a combination of both. They could also feature
provision of technical assistance, resources, and tools that help companies and social organisations implement the programme.
◆ Academic institutions could generate evidence- based empirical research in key sectors that would help companies make better decisions about
their investments.
Calls-to-action for primary actors
◆ As mentioned earlier in the report, companies could conduct trainings for internal staff to facilitate capacity building with respect to knowledge
regarding CSR.
◆ Companies could work with the implementation partner to build their organisational and operational capacity through employee volunteering, providing access to tools such as project management software, enterprise resource planning software, and so on.
◆ Companies such as IT and mobile firms could leverage their core competencies to build capacity of implementation agencies in programme
implementation, monitoring, and reporting.
Calls-to-action for government
◆ Given the nascent stage of CSR, reviewing and relaxing the 5% cap on capacity-building expenses within CSR expenditure would allow companies to budget a higher proportion of funds for
capacity building.
◆ Capacity building is required for government officials especially at the district/block level to help them understand strategic approaches, and
process approvals quicker to aid companies and NGOs in implementing projects. This will go a long way in facilitating and sustaining corporate
participation around national priority causes such as sanitation and livelihoods.
Calls-to-action for enablers
◆ Facilitate capacity building of company and NGO personnel through knowledge sharing roundtables and field visits.
◆ Capture and disseminate knowledge through toolkits, blogs, media articles, and so on.
◆ Academic institutes can integrate modules on CSR, sustainability, and business responsibility in existing courses as well as developing dedicated courses to institutionalise talent creation beyond sector-
specific courses.
5.4. Be willing to collaborate
The budgets, capabilities and resource of stakeholders may vary drastically across the sector. Hence, it is very difficult for one entity, barring the Government, to make a significant and systemic impact in the development space. Collaboration between stakeholders could facilitate greater impact through scale, efficiency and geographical spread while enabling knowledge sharing and sustainability of programmes.
Transforming India: The CSR Opportunity
Calls-to-action for primary actors
◆ Focus on building partnerships rather than a funder- vendor relationship
◆ Both partners should co-create CSR programmes and engage with each other right from the planning stage to provide constructive inputs through the duration of a programme.
◆ Companies could provide key inputs for problem- solving and risk mitigation while implementing programmes. However, to maintain a successful partnership, it is important that companies’ inputs are not construed as interference in implementation.
Calls-to-action for all stakeholders
◆ Stakeholders could leverage "collective impact", a model for social change that was articulated by Mark Kramer et al. in 2011. It is built on five principles or conditions: a common agenda, shared measurement, reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and backbone support. A collective impact model would enable multiple companies to come together to address a social issue, based on their interests, resources, stakeholder needs, and core competencies.
◆ A related call-to-action that needs highlighting is the need to invest in and support “backbone organisations” that are instrumental in brokering, creating, and managing such partnerships.31
◆ Intermediaries and large grant-making organisations could develop cause-based funds and platforms to facilitate knowledge sharing and partnerships between companies and other stakeholders. One of the possible ways to encourage companies to support causes such as agriculture, clean energy, etc. could be by pooling resources and entrusting an expert to handle the implementation
(See box for a hypothetical example on this).
PUNE CITY CONNECT AND PUNE MUNICIPAL CORPORATION ― A MODEL OF COLLABORATION FOR SMART CITIES
Pune City Connect (PCC) is a platform for collaboration between companies, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), NGOs and civil society. PCC works towards improving the socio- economic indicators of areas in and around Pune.
One of its primary projects is a partnership between companies and the Pune Municipal Corporation, to improve the quality of education in 300 odd municipal schools.
Thermax, Forbes Marshall, Yardi Software, and Motivation for Excellence Foundation partnered with around 10 NGO partners and the PMC’s Education Department to work on interventions that can build the capacity of the system and be sustainable.
PCC’s role was critical as the backbone organisation to rally different actors, create a common goal, and execute the collective agenda for improving public education outcomes. It was also a critical intermediary in institutionalising the programme within the PMC and municipal schools, to ensure that the capacity of the public education system builds up in the long run.
One of the first initiatives included the development of in-service support for approximately 1,800 Pune municipal school teachers to improve the teaching-learning processes in the classrooms. The project, Shikshak Sahyogi Dal, creates a support cadre of teacher trainers in the PMC schools to support, coach, and develop the instructional and pedagogical skills of teachers.
In the second year of this project, PCC’s responsibilities include working closely with the entire PMC education machinery to institutionalise the programme.