Posts Tagged ‘corporate social responsibility’

A few years back, if you were hosting a dinner party of key global health stakeholders, you wouldn’t have dreamed of inviting Big Business. Big Business was a little bit brash and unsophisticated and had shown little interest in global health. It is fair to say that the global health community was somewhat wary of Big Business. If anything, you would gather at your dinner party and talk about Big Business behind his back – how his obsession with lowering costs was driving poverty in the developing world or how his preoccupation with profits blinded him of his responsibility to society.

But over the last few years, things have started to change. Big Business is starting to take an interest in global health. These days you would invite him along to your evening soiree, without fear that it would turn into slanging match. He’s also been busy building relationships – cosying up to UN agencies, humanitarian aid organisations and even campaigning NGOs. This week Barclays announced a long-term partnership with UNICEF, Fedex patted itself on the back for its sterling contribution to disaster relief and Dell and Microsoft announced more (RED) products. Friendly gestures? Maybe. Meaningful relationships? Not quite. You may invite Big Business to your dinner party but he is your squash buddy at best, hardly your life partner.

The courtship between Big Business and the rest of the global health community is intriguing, but both sides are still very wary and cautious of each other. BA may be proud of its £25 million Change for Good programme but it cannot escape criticism from those who feel the investment is misplaced. What we really need is for Big Business and the global health community to embrace each other’s values to reach a common goal – something game-changing that capitalises on each other strengths to become greater than the sum of its parts, something resembling a real relationship, a marriage of sorts. Then, you could say Big Business will have arrived.