Fighting hunger with investments

International Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility, Poverty and Hunger

Christian Friis BachInternational DirectorDanChurchAid

Increasing investment flows

Source: World Investment Report, UNCTAD, 1995, 2005

219

464

1397

633648

233166

253173

79

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1993

1997

2000

2003

2004

Bill

ions

of

dolla

rs

WorldDeveloping countries

Investment regimes

Kilde: UNCTAD, World Investment Report 2003.

Investment agreements

Source: UNCTAD (1999): Bilateral Investment Treaties, 1959-1999. Geneva and UNCTAD (2004, 2005): World Investment Report.

172

165

385

1857

2200

2392

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

Num

ber

of b

ilate

ral i

nves

tmen

t tr

eatie

s

1959 1969 1979 1989 1999 2003 2004

Inequality and investments

Source: World Bank (2006): World Development Report

1% economic growth:

Equal societies: Poverty drops by around 4 percentage points

Unequal societies: Almost no effect

CSR, poverty and hunger

Share in world exports of manufactures

Share in world manufacturing value added

1980 1997 1980 1997

Developed countries 82,3 70,9 64,5 73,3

Developing countries 10,6 26,5 16,6 23,8

Source: UNCTAD (2002): World Investment Report.

Fewer rules Fiercer competition Lower taxes

Corporate Social Responsibility increasingly important

CSR policies amongst Danish companies

Have a CSR policy

Lack a CSR policy

Coverage of poverty and/or hunger3)

Coverage of environment

Coverage of working conditions

Discrimi-nation

Community support

Corporations answering the questionnaire (12)

10 2 4 10 10 7 5

Corporations not answering the questionnaire (22)

151) 72) 0 14 8 4 4

Total 25 9 4 24 18 11 9

1)If CSR, ethical guidelines or text regarding social behaviour was presented on the webpage; this was registered as having a CSR policy.2)There was no evidence of CSR or ethical guidelines presented on the webpage.3)Coverage of poverty/hunger is based on the questionnaire question about considerations of these issues. For those firms analysed through their webpage, the result is based on text referring to poverty or hunger.

CSR, poverty and hunger

Corporations indicating ‘yes’ to the following questions

Have a CSR policy 10

Impact on poverty and hunger 11

Coverage of environment 10

Coverage of working conditions 10

Coverage of community support 4

Monitoring of CSR implementation 9

Consideration of poverty and hunger 4

Consideration of access to water 3

Consideration of access to land 2

Consideration of discrimination 7

Consideration of production policy 9

Fighting hunger with investments

The effects of investments on access to water The effects of investment on access to land for people living in the area The use of local workers, non-discrimination policies and the use of affirmative

action towards socially excluded groups in the community The use of local materials and input. The flow of corporate capital and taxation The options for transfers of technology and knowledge

To maximise the impact off investments on fighting hunger and poverty CSR policies need to take into account:

The total effect of investments on poverty and hunger