Asean CSR

“... as businesses with integrity, our corporate values must extend from within our office walls to our whole operations, value chains and investments.  Only then can we begin to build a sustainable, equitable, and inclusive ASEAN Community" Yanti Triwadiantini, Chair of the ASEAN CSR Network, elaborating on the aspiration of the Regional Working Group's initiative, "Integrity Has No Borders", at the 2014 Integrity Initiative in the Philippines

“Integrity Has No Borders” will be the first major advocacy campaign and collective action of the Regional Working Group to fight against corruption convened by us to be launched.

This initiative is part of the “Enabling Business Networks in ASEAN to Combat Corruption through Collective Action with the support of the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office (UK FCO), in line with the goals of ASEAN economic integration.

The goal is to create an enabling environment for companies to say “No” to corruption and bribery, regardless of where they are in ASEAN, paving the way for growth and progress.

The campaign will also underscore how integrity is a shared responsibility, thus regional cooperation and collective action are needed to champion transparency, governance, and anti-corruption practice as an important part of corporate culture.

The activities to be conducted will be designed to encourage greater collective action at both the national and regional levels.

The initiative will strengthen the effort of the Regional Working Group to promote business integrity and extend its far reaching effects on people, companies and communities.

As a regional association of business chambers and CSR organisations, our role is to help strengthen local stakeholders and support their work in corporate social responsibility advocacy, capacity-building and collective action.

Under LAB, we work to optimise the contribution of the ASEAN business community in support of the ASEAN Strategic Plan of Action on Food Security (SPA-FS). 

SPA-FS was motivated by ASEAN Ministers of Agricultre and Forestry (AMAF) as part of the ASEAN Integrated Food Security (AIFS) Framework as an urgent need to develop a policy framework for strategic measures and actions, including requiring common understanding among ASEAN Member States.

The strategy under SPA-FS is “to ensure long-term food security and to improve the livelihoods of farmers in the ASEAN region”.

Our work done

• On 13 September 2013, in Singapore, the ASEAN CSR Network (ACN) convened the Consultation for Food and Agriculture Business Principles (FABs Principles) that commenced at Rio +20. The Consultation addressed business as critical partner for governments and other stakeholders in designing and delivering effective, scalable and practical solutions to make food systems secure and agriculture sustainable.

• In collaboration with UNGC, we jointly submitted a proposal on LAB that focused on making real the goals articulated in the SPA-FS, specifically to: (a) increase food production; (b) reduce of post-harvest losses; (c) promote conducive market and trade; (d) ensure food stability; (e) promote availability and accessibility to agricultural inputs; (f) operationalise food emergency relief arrangements.  The proposal has been endorsed by AMAF in September 2014.

• In the context of post-2015 and beyond, the ACN, with the support of the UNGC, took the opportunity to convene a Sustainable Agriculture Working Group Meeting on 6 February 2015, in Bali, Indonesia, to introduce the Integrated Sustainable Agriculture Programme (ISAP).  ISAP will create an evidence-based registry to measure the sustainable development of farmers and SME agribusinesses  Among others, ISAP is a tool to enable more actors in food and agriculture systems to adopt sustainable policies and evidence sustainable practices.

Our next steps

There is a need for greater education, capacity-building and harmonisation of efforts between businesses, policymakers and NGOs that will under LAB create the enabling environment, partnerships and business action.  To do so

• We will continue to work with the UNGC and partners to engage, communicate and link the private sector, policymakers and other stakeholders so as to come to a common ground and understanding on the food security and sustainable agriculture agenda at the national level and as a component of regional intra-ASEAN food security agenda.

• We will work with partners, through supply chains, to deliver training and capacity building services to enhance capacities in the planning and implementation of the interventions

• We will provide a platform for coordination, cooperation and information exchange between businesses, policy makers and NGOs to implement and enforce more responsible and sustainable agribusiness practices

Business integrity and anti-corruption has been one of the key pillars of our work to realise a sustainable, equitable and inclusive ASEAN with the support of the United Kingdom's Foreign & Commonwealth Office (UK FCO).

In September 2014, together with our partners from the Indonesia Business Links (IBL), the International Chamber of Commerce-Malaysia (ICC-M), the Integrity Initiative (II) in the Philippines, the Singapore Compact for CSR (SC) and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on regional cooperation against corruption in the ASEAN business community in Manila, Philippines. 

The MOU was announced at the 2014 Integrity Summit in the Philippines. The Private Sector Collective Action Coalition against Corruption of Thailand became the seventh signatory in November 2014.

The MOU is a commitment of the member organisations to jointly and separately undertake efforts to eradicate corruption in their respective countries and at the ASEAN level through initiatives that will enable business to operate more transparently, responsibly and ethically.

The ACN now has representation in seven out of 10 ASEAN Member States and continuously expanding its network of partners.

Funded by the UK FCO, we launched the project in August 2013 to enable business networks to prevent and combat corruption through collective action.  Steered by us, it led to the formation of the Regional Working Group for Business Integrity in ASEAN.

This saw 7 organisations from six ASEAN Member States coming together to play an active role in combating corruption.  The Regional Working Group now include:

1. ASEAN CSR Network
2. Integrity Initiative (Philippines)
3. Indonesia Business Links
4. International Chamber of Commerce – Malaysia
5. Singapore Compact for CSR
6. Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry
7. Private Sector Collective Action Coalition Against Corruption

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the UN Global Compact (UNGC) have been providing valuable technical advice and expertise to the initiative, achieving one of the project’s main aim of promoting awareness and uptake of international standards and frameworks for addressing corruption, including the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) and the UN Global Compact (UNGC) 10^th Principle against corruption.