Ceylon Chamber to drive Millennium Development Goals

INITIATIVE: The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) has launched an accelerated drive to spur the adoption of projects targeting the UN Millennium Development Goals among its membership.

The CCC which groups together a vast cross section of Sri Lanka’s corporate sector has been instrumental in promoting Corporate Social Responsibility among its membership by encouraging CSR practices as a core business function.

In its latest initiative, the Chamber has formed a CSR Sub Committee with high level representation from the Top Ten Best Corporate Citizens of 2006 to focus on helping Sri Lanka achieve targets set under the eight Millennium Development Goals.

The Millennium Development Goals or MDGs form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions, to galvanise efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest communities by 2015.

The eight MDGs promote poverty reduction, education, maternal health, gender equality, and aim at combating child mortality, AIDS and other diseases.

In order to achieve the MDGs, poor countries have pledged to govern better, and invest in their people through healthcare and education while rich countries have pledged to support them, through aid, debt relief, and fairer trade.

The MDGs are the backbone of efforts of governments around the world to eradicate extreme poverty and in Sri Lanka too, there is a concerted effort among public, private and non-governmental organisations to align activities along the goals.

The Chamber CSR Sub Committee has been tasked with focusing on future projects that are targeted towards individual MDGs and the sub committee has invited all CCC member companies to be represented.

The Goal Coordinating Committees (GCC) will formulate a 15month Action Plan targeting each goal.

The eight Sub Committees have identified several key projects, including rural education; training teachers in English; enhancing children’s learning environments; nutrition programmes for schoolchildren; gender equality within organisations; minimising Sexual Harassment at the workplace; educating mothers on pregnancy, infant care and maternal health; improving mother’s nutrition levels; creating a stable base for medical infrastructure and to improve health facilities; HIV AIDS awareness and workplace education; minimising plastics-use to promote environment sustainability; sustainable water and sanitation projects and protecting rain forests and greenery.

The Ceylon Chambers CSR Sub Committee is led by Sumithra Gunasekera of John Keells Holdings who is supported by members Shiroma Jayawickrema of HSBC, Deepal Sooriyarachchi - Eagle Insurance, Vidhura Ralapanawe of MAS Intimates, Suren De Chickera - Nestle Lanka, Mahesh Wijayawardena- Singer Sri Lanka, Dilantha Seneviratne - Hayleys Ltd, Anusha Alles- Brandix Lanka and Tharaka Ranawala from Sampath Bank.

The sub committee will receive advice and guidance from an eminent group of development professionals including Ismail Radwan of the World Bank, Surani Abeyesekera of UNICEF, Shyamala Gomez - UNRC, Priyanthi Fernando - CEPA, Dr Kumari Nawaratne - World Bank, David Bridger - UNAIDS, Shiranee Yasaratne - IUCN and Ananda Mallawatantri - UNDP.

The members of the sub-committee are drawn from the 10 companies that were selected as the “Top 10 Best Corporate Citizens” at the Annual Competition organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce in 2006.

The award measures the ranking of the sustainable activities of a corporate entity in terms of the Environment, Economy, Community, Employees and Customers.

The competition is one of many ways in which the CCC promotes and encourages Corporate Social Responsibility in the business sector.

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC), as an independent, non-profit and non-political voluntary body, is an effective spokesman of the business sector.

Its members serve on various institutions and committees set up by the Government as well as the private sector, either as Chamber nominees or in their personal capacities.