Thought leadership: Community investment
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
FE Report
When it comes to tackling the dire challenges facing communities around the world, large companies can contribute more by making good use of their global networks and contacts, argues Richard Meddings, Group Finance Director of Standard Chartered Bank. Hundreds of millions of people around the world live in poverty, lacking food and healthcare or suffering the effects of environmental degradation and climate change. Most of today's large corporations know that ignoring these challenges is not an option; the sustained performance of a business is linked intrinsically to the health and prosperity of the societies in which it works. The most obvious response would be to set aside a portion of annual profits for charity, and most large corporations do, including Standard Chartered. But the point is we can do more. By enlisting our many thousand employees and our networks of business partners and clients, we can extend our reach, raise more money and make that money go a lot further. We can also use our profile and influence to give publicity to critical issues and help others to become involved. Each year on World Health Day, Standard Chartered asks brokers working globally for our Financial Markets business to donate the day's fees to Seeing is Believing (SiB), our flagship global community investment programme. It's a very good example of how a large international company can use its structure and relationships to leverage its own donations: we match funds raised dollar for dollar. Years ago we decided to take a proactive approach on some of the key issues that affect people across our footprint in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. We've built a portfolio of country and global community investment programmes, of which SiB is the most wide-spread, a StanChart Statement said. Visual impairment impacts the health and quality of life of millions with the cost of lost productivity estimated at USD200 billion annually. Yet four out of five of the 39 million blind people across the world suffer from conditions that could be prevented or treated. Around 90 per cent of this avoidable blindness occurs in the developing world, and many of our markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East are affected by it. In 2003, the StanChart marked its sesquicentenary anniversary with a simple initiative to raise enough money for 28,000 cataract operations. The response from our staff, business partners and markets was overwhelming. Since 2003, our staff and supporters have raised USD16 million for SiB. This amount has been matched dollar for dollar by Standard Chartered to reach a total of USD32 million so far, the statement said. The impact of SiB is clear: since 2003, the programme has reached 23 million people, helped fund 2.78 million sight-saving cataract operations and facilitated the distribution of medicine to treat Vitamin A deficiency and river blindness for 3.37 million people. Meanwhile, the projects we've supported have helped move eye care up the public healthcare agenda in countries such as South Africa, Ghana and Pakistan. In Pakistan, for example, a project has now been planned to integrate eye care into health screening at schools. We know we can do even more and continually look for ways to maximise the impact of our programmes or make more use of our core business for contributing to communities. It's not all about fundraising; it's also about giving our time and specialist skills, the statement added. Living with HIV, our workplace HIV and AIDS education programme, deliberately doesn't have a fundraising element. Founded in 1999, this sets out to spread the word on one of the greatest challenges to global health, a disease affecting more than 33 million people, it said. Since 2007, our more than 1,000 dedicated staff volunteers, known as HIV Champions - together with our partners across the public, private and NGO sectors - have educated more than 1.6 million people on HIV and AIDS. By providing a range of free education tools, we've enlisted 82 other organisations to conduct their own training, many of them clients and suppliers of Standard Chartered who might not otherwise have had the chance to become involved. Ultimately, we'll consider ourselves successful when our intervention is no longer needed. In India, the 40 vision centers we've established through SiB have become on average 80 per cent self-sustaining within the first two years. SiB has also funded training for over 50,000 healthcare workers who will be able to help their communities long into the future. Living with HIV, too, has helped to develop local capabilities. In Nigeria, for example, our employee HIV champions have trained over 1,000 healthcare workers, who have gone on to educate a total of 350,000 people. For Standard Chartered, community investment is not a separate, 'nice to have' activity, but integral to our strategy and part of our brand promise to be Here for good. We're very clear that it makes good business sense to help increase long-term economic activity in the communities where we live and work. The 'sweet spot' is where we can find opportunities to do something with substantial sustainable positive impact on people and economies whilst making money for our shareholders.
When it comes to tackling the dire challenges facing communities around the world, large companies can contribute more by making good use of their global networks and contacts, argues Richard Meddings, Group Finance Director of Standard Chartered Bank. Hundreds of millions of people around the world live in poverty, lacking food and healthcare or suffering the effects of environmental degradation and climate change. Most of today's large corporations know that ignoring these challenges is not an option; the sustained performance of a business is linked intrinsically to the health and prosperity of the societies in which it works. The most obvious response would be to set aside a portion of annual profits for charity, and most large corporations do, including Standard Chartered. But the point is we can do more. By enlisting our many thousand employees and our networks of business partners and clients, we can extend our reach, raise more money and make that money go a lot further. We can also use our profile and influence to give publicity to critical issues and help others to become involved. Each year on World Health Day, Standard Chartered asks brokers working globally for our Financial Markets business to donate the day's fees to Seeing is Believing (SiB), our flagship global community investment programme. It's a very good example of how a large international company can use its structure and relationships to leverage its own donations: we match funds raised dollar for dollar. Years ago we decided to take a proactive approach on some of the key issues that affect people across our footprint in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. We've built a portfolio of country and global community investment programmes, of which SiB is the most wide-spread, a StanChart Statement said. Visual impairment impacts the health and quality of life of millions with the cost of lost productivity estimated at USD200 billion annually. Yet four out of five of the 39 million blind people across the world suffer from conditions that could be prevented or treated. Around 90 per cent of this avoidable blindness occurs in the developing world, and many of our markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East are affected by it. In 2003, the StanChart marked its sesquicentenary anniversary with a simple initiative to raise enough money for 28,000 cataract operations. The response from our staff, business partners and markets was overwhelming. Since 2003, our staff and supporters have raised USD16 million for SiB. This amount has been matched dollar for dollar by Standard Chartered to reach a total of USD32 million so far, the statement said. The impact of SiB is clear: since 2003, the programme has reached 23 million people, helped fund 2.78 million sight-saving cataract operations and facilitated the distribution of medicine to treat Vitamin A deficiency and river blindness for 3.37 million people. Meanwhile, the projects we've supported have helped move eye care up the public healthcare agenda in countries such as South Africa, Ghana and Pakistan. In Pakistan, for example, a project has now been planned to integrate eye care into health screening at schools. We know we can do even more and continually look for ways to maximise the impact of our programmes or make more use of our core business for contributing to communities. It's not all about fundraising; it's also about giving our time and specialist skills, the statement added. Living with HIV, our workplace HIV and AIDS education programme, deliberately doesn't have a fundraising element. Founded in 1999, this sets out to spread the word on one of the greatest challenges to global health, a disease affecting more than 33 million people, it said. Since 2007, our more than 1,000 dedicated staff volunteers, known as HIV Champions - together with our partners across the public, private and NGO sectors - have educated more than 1.6 million people on HIV and AIDS. By providing a range of free education tools, we've enlisted 82 other organisations to conduct their own training, many of them clients and suppliers of Standard Chartered who might not otherwise have had the chance to become involved. Ultimately, we'll consider ourselves successful when our intervention is no longer needed. In India, the 40 vision centers we've established through SiB have become on average 80 per cent self-sustaining within the first two years. SiB has also funded training for over 50,000 healthcare workers who will be able to help their communities long into the future. Living with HIV, too, has helped to develop local capabilities. In Nigeria, for example, our employee HIV champions have trained over 1,000 healthcare workers, who have gone on to educate a total of 350,000 people. For Standard Chartered, community investment is not a separate, 'nice to have' activity, but integral to our strategy and part of our brand promise to be Here for good. We're very clear that it makes good business sense to help increase long-term economic activity in the communities where we live and work. The 'sweet spot' is where we can find opportunities to do something with substantial sustainable positive impact on people and economies whilst making money for our shareholders.