THE STATUS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the status of CSR in Ethiopia and provide recommendations about the role of Ethiopian Government to support a CSR agenda and intervention policy to address social challenges. Document review was employed as data collection methods and data analysis and collection were performed simultaneously. It can be concluded that in Ethiopia, there is no general aversion to the concept of CSR and the CSR label has been applied to many initiatives and political programs without any effective strategic discussion never having taken place this is due to the fact that the Ethiopian’s public policy makers have never developed a strategic concept on the topic of CSR. Overall, the shortcomings cannot be ascribed to the business community, but to the lack of a political framework. Therefore, CSR should be discussed in Ethiopia in a programmatic manner, and a long-term national CSR policy should be developed based on the four key principles: strategy, communication and awareness, transparency and cooperation.