Globalization, Corporate Social Responsibility and poverty

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a major focus of interest not only for corporate managers but also for development practitioners, both within the NGO community and within the multilateral and bilateral development agencies.1 Development NGOs have, for the most part, been extremely critical of the voluntary initiatives undertaken by the corporate sector. In a recent report Christian Aid stated that ‘CSR is a completely inadequate response to the sometimes devastating impact that multinational companies [have]’,2 while a recent Oxfam study highlights the way in which the supplychain purchasing practices of retailers in the garment and horticulture sectors undermine their professed aspirations to social responsibility as set out in their corporate codes of conduct.3 Official development agencies take a much more positive view of the development impacts of CSR. As the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) states, ‘By following socially responsible practices, the growth generated by the private sector will be more inclusive, equitable and poverty reducing.’4 Antonio Vivos of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) goes even further when he writes that ‘CSR, by its very nature, is development done by the private sector, and it perfectly complements the development efforts of governments and multilateral development institutions.’5 The World Bank actively promotes CSR through its Corporate Social Responsibility Practice and its training arm the World Bank Institute, while the