CAIRO: “We're trying to get NGOs, companies, volunteers, donors and everyone together in one place so we can all sit and talk and brainstorm together to figure out how to develop and speed up the recovery of the country and have better cooperation,” said Mohamed El-Fawy, deputy of the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee at the Egyptian Junior Business Association. “Basically what is happening right now is everyone, especially companies, is trying to do their own thing whether it be a foundation or something else and starting from scratch figuring things out instead of looking at ones already established; this is a huge waste of resources so we want everyone to get together to talk,” he told Daily News Egypt. Since the recent events of the revolution in Egypt, individual citizens, small businesses and large corporations have made more of an effort than ever before in trying to help the country recover and prop up the economy. For its part, Egypt's Ministry of Finance set up last week a special account with the Central Bank of Egypt to receive contributions from Egyptians and Egyptians living abroad, proceeds of which will be geared towards supporting the economy, minister Samir Radwan was quoted as saying. The decision to open the account came after both the Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs had received thousands of calls from expatriate Egyptians wanting to support the national economy. Details of the account balance and its utilization will be communicated publicly, Radwan said. As for companies, more money is being allocated for CSR programs as of late. On March 11, the EJB held an all day CSR program titled “Give Back 2011” as a platform to bring companies, organizations and individuals together to communicate. “We aren't targeting a specific kind of NGO or organization; we are welcoming anyone and everyone,” said El-Fawy. Almost 100 various organizations came out for the event, such as NGOs Ashoka and Injaz. Injaz is an NGO dedicated to partnering young Egyptians from middle school through universities with businesses as a way to aide in the students' understanding of the business world, using members of the participating companies as mentors sharing their experiences. “Our main goal is to spread awareness and have people network. I'm hoping that companies feel more socially responsible now and once a few start doing it becomes a trend that everyone starts doing it too,” said El-Fawy. El-Fawy added that he hopes this will make companies also stop bribery, treat employees better, care more about the environment and human rights as well improve as a whole in the context of a fairer economy. The event is the group's second one of this kind, holding their first in 2009 and should become an annual event. “We were supposed to have one in March 2010, but for some reason it didn't work out and actually worked for the better so that we could have it now,” said El-Fawy Sponsors for the event included the Arab African International Bank, Commercial International Bank, Encon Group, Oriental Resorts, Pepsi, Vodafone and Modern Bakeries. The entrance price was a donation of at least LE 50 and all proceeds will go to the EJB's “Clean water for all” initiative. This project is a fund the EJB has created to finance the connection of pipelines to various villages in Egypt that currently don't have access to clean water, explained Omar Sabbour, head of the EJB's CSR committee. In addition to the NGO and company booths, there were vendors of clothing, crafts, and food. The event also included various panel discussions such as talking about the clean water initiative as well as the corporations' role in development on the topic of corporate ethics, expectations from the private sector as well as the role of media. “Most people participating in the discussions have had many years experience in the CSR work and I can't say they have new ideas but I can see a huge increase in enthusiasm and the optimism they have,” said Sabbour. Sabbour said that after the revolution, he has seen more people try to become more involved in giving back to the country. “People started to believe that we own the country, not the former regime. We all saw people in the streets collecting the garbage, cleaning up and painting the streets,” said Sabbour. “I believe and hope this will become a long term thing and not just a phase,” he added. “The response so far has been great, everyone is keen right now on helping with the recovery and clean up of this country and feel a sense of responsibility to help, but a big problem I see is that everyone wants to help in every single direction and spreading themselves too thin,” said El-Fawy. “Now people are trying to focus on one or two things to really put their energy into, and this event helps as an arena for that.”
