A Motivating CSR Project

A few months ago, I got this pleasant, surprising news from one of my colleagues from the company where I used to work as a HR consultant until March 2007. The news was about the launching of their first Corporate Social Responsibility project which was realized as their 8^th year anniversary.

What made me even more surprised as well as excited was that the Philippine was chosen to be the very location of the project. They will donate classrooms to an elementary school in Masbate, one of the poorest regions in the whole country.


Looking back, when I first joined that company, a HR management consulting firm targeting only domestic market, as a fresh college graduate, the company was just about to take its leap from their “venture” phase, experiencing incredibly rapid growth both in capital as well as numbers of employees. At that time, “expansion” and “speed” are one of those key words that would describe the atmosphere of the company, and no body, at least among those young folks, dare to take time to talk about “CSR” or about the world outside of the country, even though by that time “CSR” has been already getting attention from the society and often promoted by big corporations.


When I finally decided to leave the company to give some time for myself to see what the real world is outside, I never imagined that the day when my company will have any prospects of entering into those CSR areas will come so soon.
That’s why I had a real difficulty to link my perception of the company that I knew of to their new project in the Philippines, when I first heard about the news. What--? Donation to an elementary school--? Why in the Philippines--? As said, while I was so surprised by the news, at the same time, I felt as if it is a sort of hearty cheers from my ex-company, which made me really happy.

The project will be conducted by Plan International, a well-established international NGO on the field of education, from May to October. The company will not only cover the cost of infrastructure but also support Plan’s various activities to maintain the quality of the school.

Masbate, where the project is located, is part of Bicol regions and ranked as one of the poorest provinces in the country. According to Inquirer on April 12, 55.9% of the households are living blow the poverty line. There are several factors that make this region particularly poor: Remoteness of the area makes the communities in Masbate isolated from the rest of the country, detached from basic access to education, health service and any kinds of information necessary. Typhoons that occasionally hit the area is also one of the factors that cause serous loss in people and crops that are about to be harvested.

Since I was so happy and excited about the news, I shared the story with my Filipino classmate. I knew that he has skepticism toward CSR, and it often clashed with my rather optimistic view of CSR. But even for him, the fact that a Japanese small venture company that holds technically no direct interests in the Philippines decided to support the development of his country seemed to give him somehow positive impression. He asked me to tell him more about the project.

So I tried to give him overall idea of the project. But when I first told him that project is in Masbate, he looked a bit upset and then asked me if I have any idea why that island is so poor.

“Well, maybe natural disaster---?” I answered, trying to understand his intention. Then he said, “Hummm…that can be one of the reasons, but--- Masbate is heavily NPA influenced area. That makes the situation of the area a bit more complicated”

Now, I got a bit better sense. In the Philippines, the poorer the region is, the bigger frustration people tend to have toward the government and that makes them more attracted to support the armed wing of the communist party, NPA (New People’s Army); The root causes of the predicament of those poor communities are not just due to the natural disaster or lack of access to the basic social services, but at times, but are also due to the violent confrontation between the government and NPA.

According to him, in the rural Philippines where the basic services of the government do not properly reach communities, it is NPA that provide education and medical services to the people. At times, the competition between the government and NPA to win the popularity in the region and their attempt to undermine the other’s raison d'etre becomes extremely intense, even at the sacrifice of the civilians. Many civilians have lost their lives in the gunfight.

“In such a difficult region, what can a Japanese company do, if they have no sense of connection to the area?”

He was kind enough not to dare to say so, but I could sense his concern--the insensitivity and egotistic nature of CSR.

I told him that the project will be undertaken by Plan International and asked if that fact makes any difference.


He then said, looking a bit relieved, “then, it will be a great project, because Plan is a really well-perceived organization by the people in the region, even by NPA.”

I was very surprised that he seemed to know so much about Plan in Masbate. Then, he told me that he himself was actually working there with Plan, doing some research to assess the needs of the people. He explained to me how Plan starts their projects with in-depth trust-building within communities. He says that any development projects that ignore the context of the area and real needs of the people never be sustainable.


Even if they successfully provide a community with fancy classrooms, without the existence of comprehensive approach based upon the real understanding and trust of people, they will eventually be abandoned because, for example, no parents can afford notebooks for their kids, or the place is too isolated to attract teachers from the town, or a powerful local politician forcibly privatizes it.


Although there is no single definition that could successfully capture all different aspects and activities of CSR, I personally think that a partnership between private companies that are rich in various resources and those NGOs that are rich in all know-how to implement sustainable project within a community realizes the best role distribution. Of course, there are actually a few legitimate reasons for some to be skeptical about it, which I will discuss about it in the next entry.