Leadership Journey: Global Impact CSR

Leadership Journey: Global Impact CSR

In order for people to live long, healthy and fulfilling lives they need to have access to a number of fundamental services; medical clinics, education and good nutrition are a good start. Development in these three areas, according to the UNDP, is slowest in Sub-Saharan Africa.
 
“If you are committed to reducing poverty, you have to believe in economic development and growth” says Andrew Mitchell, MP and Secretary of State for International Development in Great Britain. “For every extra percentage point of growth in Africa more schools can be built to educate children, more health facilities will be available for the sick and safer drinking water will be supplied to communities.”

Graham Baxter, of the International Business Leaders Forum, says that “we have reached a tipping point in the way business sees its relationship with the developing world.” He says that we are seeing “an increased willingness and interest by companies in committing business thinking and capacity to shared development challenges, particularly in Africa.”
 
Leadership Journey is a carefully designed program through which a western business can connect small groups of its leaders with a development project of their choice. The initial visit is all about building relationship and understanding the complexities of such a relationship and then supporting the development of the program through financial help, expertise and advocacy.

We have projects that specifically deal with providing medical services, from the village clinic to home based care to the regional hospital. We also have projects which seek to increase literacy, educate the poor in new ways to farm and raise livestock and to help children, particularly girls, to achieve a basic education to at least year 9. There are also a range of agro-forestry projects designed to improve soil, food security and crop yields for farmers who know all too well the pinch of hunger.