Arab world gets CSR body

Queen Rania of Jordan has formed an Arab Sustainability Leadership Group to promote corporate responsibility across the Middle East. She has already chaired the first meeting of the body, which will assemble four times a year with the aim of 'encouraging businesses to balance profit with environmental protection and equal opportunity'.

The 16 founding members are companies and non-governmental organizations from five Middle East countries. They include Egypt's Sekem Group (consumer goods), Jordan's Aramex (freighting), Palestine's PalTel Group (telecoms), Saudi Arabia's National Commercial Bank, and the United Arab Emirates businesses VTEL Holdings (financial services) and Abraaj Capital (private equity). The group hopes to have representation from all 21 Middle East countries within a year.

One priority will be to encourage more sustainability reporting in the Arab world. Queen Rania said the group would 'increase awareness of the benefits of reporting to companies'. A number of the founders, including Aramex and Abraaj Capital, are among the few Middle East companies to have produced sustainability reports. Queen Rania said the group would try to be 'the region's voice on the global stage, ensuring the Arab world not only catches up but keeps pace with the frontrunners in sustainability'.

A particular focus will be on opportunities for young people, especially in a region where 60 per cent of the population is under 30 and youth unemployment rates are so high - only one in three has a job. A World Bank study five years ago found the region will need to create 80-100 million jobs by 2020. Education is a further priority for the region, given that 9.2 million young people are illiterate.

The new group is the latest of a number of projects to promote corporate responsibility in the region. Earlier this year the Saudi Arabian government introduced a three-year Responsible Competitiveness Initiative to encourage good business behaviour (EP9, issue 11, p3).

A Middle East Centre for Sustainable Development has been established in Dubai (EP9, issue 6, p2), and the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry has created a Centre for Responsible Business.