Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as Window dressing

Some question whether anti-corruption bodies have the power to make a difference. Abdoul Rahamane Diallo, Guinea programme co-ordinator for the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, says: "The problem with all these bodies is that they do investigations, they get reports, but they cannot prosecute.

"Sometimes it feels as if the state is disappearing beneath these private enterprises," adds Falcone, whose organisation has 44 staff and a budget of only £75,000 a year. "These companies have the means to influence our politicians and political parties. But fortunately we are beginning to form stronger institutions to take them on."

Thatcher’s government went to considerable lengths to encourage CSR.  It worked with business leaders to create the CSR association, Business in the Community.  Minister Michael Heseltine led business leader tours of deprived and riot-damaged parts of UK cities.  Subsidies were awarded to organisations which encouraged CSR. I am told that Thatcher herself phoned business leaders urging them to get involved.

In the past, I’ve written about improved company commitments to FPIC, an encouraging trend that Oxfam has observed in the mining sector as well as the food and beverage sector. This development demonstrates that indigenous peoples’ struggles, both in the courts and on their land, have led to a political context where some companies have incorporated FPIC into their public policies. However, our 2015 Community Consent Index, which reviewed oil, gas, and mining company public positions on FPIC, noted a lack of progress in the oil and gas sector. None of the oil companies listed in the index had FPIC policies.

For indigenous peoples, FPIC is their right under international law. Oxfam has called on mining and oil companies for years to respect FPIC for indigenous peoples and nonindigenous communities. Yet the jury is still out on whether corporate FPIC commitments made to date will lead to meaningful change in practice.

However, the decision last month by mining giant AngloGold Ashanti to suspend its La Colosa project in Colombia after a referendum revealed overwhelming local opposition to the project, offers one hopeful example. The company publicly recognized the outcome of the consultation (about 98 percent of voters opposed the project) in an April communique, stating that they “accept the position expressed by the community” and that they will halt all project-related activities as a result. Most countries don’t have a legal framework as strong as Colombia’s around issues of indigenous community consultation. Still, this decision and Shell’s new policy may mark further movement towards respect for FPIC by extractive companies.