Are CSR activities directed towards sustainable development goals?: a study in India

Abstract

Billions of people in the world lack of access to basic necessities. In 2000, the United Nations adopted a series of eight goals termed as ‘millennium development goals’ (MDGs) for member states during 2000-2015. These goals covered poverty and hunger, primary education, gender equality, child mortality, maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, environmental sustainability and global partnership. By 2015, the worldwide goals had been only partially achieved. In September 2015, The United Nations adopted a new series of 17 ‘sustainable development goals’ (SDGs) with 169 associated targets for the period 2016- 2030. The SDGs retain focus on challenges from the MDGs but also enlarge the focus to new areas such as energy, employment, infrastructure, cities, consumption, climate and peace. While the responsibility of achieving the SDGs lies with the governments of UN member states, corporations can also contribute to SDG achievement via their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. The need for human development is particularly acute in developing countries in Asia and Africa and well directed CSR activities could assist governmental efforts. Hence an important research question concerns whether the CSR activities of the large, well-funded corporations in developing countries align with SDGs. In this study the CSR sections of the websites of the 50 largest companies in India have been examined and the reported CSR activities have been analyzed. Content analysis methods are used to classify CSR activities into categories related to SDGs and inferences are drawn about the extent to which companies are directing CSR towards SDGs. Based on the findings, some recommendations for CSR have been made. This study will add to the literature on CSR in developing countries and will be useful for corporate executives who are responsible for planning and implementing CSR activities