ABSTRACT

This study examined the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives by Dangote Company Cameroon, focusing on their effectiveness and the challenges encountered. The research explored various aspects, including education, community development, healthcare, infrastructure development, employment and skill development, agricultural development, gender empowerment, stakeholder engagement, and transparency. The findings revealed that Dangote Company Cameroon has excelled in implementing CSR initiatives, particularly in education, community development, healthcare, infrastructure development, employment and skill development, agricultural development, and gender empowerment. These initiatives have positively impacted the well-being of local communities by providing educational opportunities, alleviating poverty, improving access to healthcare, enhancing infrastructure, generating employment, promoting agricultural productivity, and empowering women. However, challenges were identified, including limited resources, cultural and social context, stakeholder alignment and engagement, and the need for continuous improvement. Recommendations were provided, emphasizing the importance of comprehensive needs assessment, strategic partnerships, stakeholder engagement and collaboration, long-term impact measurement, capacity building, environmental sustainability, and regular communication and reporting. These recommendations aim to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of CSR initiatives, further contributing to the development and well-being of the communities served by Dangote Company Cameroon.

CHAPTER ONE

General Introduction

  Corporate social responsibility over the last decades has been a concept which has attracted the attention of many researchers in its sphere such that, most of these researchers have come up with various models and theories to help facilitate the concept surrounding CSR and its implementations. Worthy of note is the fact that CSR has been in existence way before the 1950s. But was brought to light in the aforementioned time and got its worldwide recommendation in the 1990[1]s. CSR is the practice of a corporation engaging in enriching communistic activities away from their main aim of existence. It is simply willingly giving back to the society without the aim of profit maximization though it was more researched on by foreign authors such as Archie Carroll, James Brusseau, just to name few, bringing to light 37 definitions all over the world. Yet still it had a focus point which was sustainability which can only be achieved through its concepts such as economic, ethical, social, philanthropic ways. They fall under the conservatives of the Carroll theory, The Triple Bottom Line Theory and the stakeholder theory. Each of the aforementioned theory has been greatly analyzed   but an advanced understanding of each theory will facilitate a corporation’s decision makers to implement long term strategies with more accurate achievements[2]. With a company such as Dangote Cement PLC represented in Cameroon since in the year 2015 an effective implementation of CSR in its decision making and proof of works, is vital. It being the company with the best quality of cement globally, and as well having one of the largest scales of production has a lot to give back to the society it takes from[3]. Hence, there is supposed to be an availability of CSR in its curriculum and at balance in whatever theory it deems fit using as mentioned above as long as it doesn’t derail from the concept of CSR.  On that note, this work will be looking at critically appraising the CSR implementations of Dangote in Cameroon.

This chapter provides evolution of the concept of CRS in the background to the study, discusses the problem that necessitated the research, the methodology employed, the objectives to be achieved and the significance and justification for the study, amongst others.

• BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Historically, the construction of CSR has been the idea that businessmen have social responsibilities. It emerges in the US at the end of the nineteenth century and was firmly rooted in a tradition of philanthropy and in religious foundations (Protestant ethics). The development of the CSR doctrine in the US then follows a process of stop and go that follows the contours of the legitimizing dynamic of the American capitalist system (phases of crises and growth) throughout the twentieth century Carroll[4] attributes to Howard Bowen the paternity of the “modern” concept of CSR in management by referring to his 1953 book titled “Social Responsibilities of the Businessman.”

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept that has been defined by many authors and it is found in most journal articles, but it is unclear if companies and organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) French-speaking countries really understand its meaning exactly means alongside its impacts in promoting the SDGs?

In the 1980s, the United Nations highlighted environmental issues at the World Commission on Environment and Development, under the leadership of Norway’s Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland. The document produce would be known as the Brundtland Report, which defines sustainable development as the ability to meet the needs of the present generation without comprising the ability of future generations to meet their own[5]. However at the United Nations Conference Rio +20 that focused on Sustainable Development, international actors emphasized the need to channel policy and resources towards Sustainable Development Goals to streamline economic activities that impose risks to the environment and fail to reduce poverty level across the world, especially in Africa. However, Rio+20 was not the first conference to address a sustainable development agenda despite marking a resilient effort to redirect resources and policy towards mitigating against environmental risks and the depletion of natural capital assets, unable to maintain globalization pace of economic production and consumption[6]. Therefore, the concern about social and environmental issues, inserted in the context of sustainable development reflects the need for organizations application of Corporate Social Responsibility.

Sustainable development (SD) is not only the responsibility of the government and large businesses in developing economies. There is a perspective shift for all participation that is collective contribution and responsibility of everyone from small to medium enterprises (SMEs), to contribute towards the SD agenda by engaging with CSR.

Therefore, CSR has had certain popularity over the past twenty years, in reference to the principles of sustainable development. It has its origins in a protest movement of economic globalization to which companies propose to respond in two ways; by developing a dialogue with the stakeholders of the company (employees, civil society); and by widening their concerns to the social and environmental domains, which aligned with definition of SD in the Brundtland Report[7]. It is important to point out that The Brundtland report on sustainable development gives a holistic approach, which is proactive enough to give a futuristic projection of CSR practises of companies and organizations in order to redefine their practices based on sustainable pathways.

Dangote industries specifically in Corporate social responsibility has been one of the top world’s topics of concern with regards to the existence of corporations and their works in the society or environment they occupy. The need for businesses to be socially responsible to the immediate society or habitation as a way to achieve stability and a more-friendly environment has been debated by many scholars.  It’s that aspect of a company’s dealings which lets them willingly and freely give back to the society more than what they take from them. Corporate social responsibility more commonly known and abbreviated as (CSR), is a concept that defines and brings together many aspects of an organization’s strategy to better the society[1]. It is a fast growing concept in the world today as organizations are prone to prove that their business aims at more than just profit making but rather interact ethically with the surrounding community for a greater good. Defining the term corporate social responsibility in basic terms would be an act of a Corporation’s business obligation to make decisions that ultimately benefits the society. At an effective resource allocation and employment. But in today’s world, it has gone way beyond that hence, modern businesses must think beyond profit maximization. Howard Bowen, popularly known as the “father of CSR”, who then was an American economist and president of the Grinnell College, was the first in the year 1953 to instigate and link the responsibilities corporations have to the society and thereby went forward to explain why companies ought to interested in being socially and environmentally accountable as this work seeks to appraise in the context of Dangote Cameroon’s CSR works[2]. He (Howard Bowen) made a clear explanation of these all in his book which he released entitled “The Social Responsibility of the Businessman” which also made public the first ever acceptable definition of CSR. This paved the way for the release and exposure on more factual guides needed to make CSR a solid existing tool in the world such as theories, models and more definitions.

Although the term had been known, it got its world deserved recognition years later in the 1990s when Professor Donna of the Pittsburgh university released a book which expanded on the models of CSR which are strategic and philanthropic and as well provided a framework for assessing the impacts and outcomes of its implementation by corporations[3]. To add to that, authors began expanding on the already available guides towards the implementation of CSR and by the year 2000, CSR had become universally acceptable, hence approved, and also an essential strategy for many companies such as Dangote Cameroon. As a better means to solidify its existence, a broader guide was released and organized in order of importance and termed “The Pyramid of Corporate social responsibility”.