Corporate Social Responsibility and Development

After reading the article of Sylvia Chant on the shift from smart to smarter economics, I decided that I wanted to share with you a corporate social responsibility (CSR) case study that relates women, development, the Coca-Cola Company and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. 

To begin with, I will give you a brief overview of the '5 by 20' initiative led by the Coca-Cola Company. This initiative emerged in 2010 as a pilot program in Brazil, India, the Philippines and South Africa, and aims to economically empower 5 million women, who participate in the company’s production chain, by the year 2020 (Coca-Cola India, 2016; Fundación Coca Cola México, 2015). The Coca-Cola Company would achieve its goal through programs, such as micro enterprises, that according to this multinational, would support women’s social and economic development (Coca-Cola India, 2016; Fundación Coca Cola México, 2015). Overall, this initiative is the result of the company’s commitment to comply with SDGs by aligning its CSR program with the gender equality objective posed by the United Nations in 2015 (The Coca-Cola Company, 2016; Baptista, Jenkins & Valikai, 2013).

Figure 1: Infographic about the ‘5 by 20’ initiative of Coca-Cola

Reprinted from https://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/building-stronger-businesses-families-and-communities-one-woman-at-a-time-a-5by20-infographic

Consequently, this company’s initiative relates to the concept of ‘smart economics’ developed by Chant in her article because Coca-Cola focuses on the development of women only through economic progress. This is because the purpose of this program is to not only reduce gender inequalities but also help women to access other financial services and network supports. In fact, this type of program reinforces the continuing use of the efficiency approach to have more effective development outcomes that can lead to a higher economic growth (Chant, 2016; Moser, 2016). Thus, by ‘investing for development’, the program implemented by Coca-Cola demonstrates that the company has a market value-based approach and that it observes women as those without whom they could not reach their economic goal for 2020 (Baptista et al. 2013).

Figure 2: Number of women entrepreneurs economically empowered across Coca-Cola’s global value chain from 2015 until 2017

Reprinted from https://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/2017-tracking-our-progress

In this context, according to Marianne Gronemeyer (2001) aid can be used as an instrument to wield power in an 'elegant ' way (Gronemeyer, 2001). In other words, by using the concept of 'elegance of power ', the author refers to the use of power in a subtle and unrecognizable way through the provision of aid (Gronemeyer, 2001). This social scientist affirms that this type of ' aid ' results in two benefits: one that has an economic-material character and another related to a more political-legitimizing type (Gronemeyer, 2001). In the case of the Coca-Cola initiative, it could be said that it uses SDGs as an instrument of ' sophisticated power ' to meet its goal of doubling the size of its business, by revenue, by the year 2020 (Baptista et al. 2013). In fact, this legitimizes its desire to expand the purchase and sale of its products by women, who are among the main buyers and sellers of their goods, through the promotion of gender equality as a human right, as part of the United Nations’ SDGs and as part of its social responsibility with the community (Baptista et al. 2013). Hence, investing in women “appears to be driven not only by imperatives of ‘female empowerment’ but also to realise more general dividends for future economic growth and poverty alleviation” (Chant, 2016, p. 1).

In conclusion, I believe that to date, transnational corporations, as cooperating institutions for development, have used the privatization of aid as a tool to improve their image and gain support for the expansion of their markets. In the case of Coca-Cola, I think that it has not been completely complying with the SDG goal regarding gender, because they have just been focusing on women and have excluded men and LGBTQ communities from their programs. For instance, by doing so, in the long-term, its initiatives could have a negative impact on women. Sometimes these types of programs create insecurities in men regarding their role in the family, which in turn could lead to domestic violence. Other times, these programs could make people think that women are, now, the only ones that have to take care of everything and thus, reduce men’s responsibilities.

Extra interactive material

The following is a video about the '5 by 20 ' initiative led by the Coca-Cola Company in India:

In this video you will be able to notice how Coca-Cola has given economic assistance as well as training to Preeti Gupta to open a small shop. In exchange, the company made her use a solar cooler with the company’s propaganda inside her business, sell sodas from the multinational and use an advertisement with the name of the company in one of the walls of her shop. This, in my view, allows Coca-Cola to promote its brand as well as increase its market in a very subtle and elegant way.

References

Baptista, P., Jenkins, B. & Valikai, K. (2013). The Coca-Cola Company’s 5by20 Initiative Empowering Women Entrepreneurs across the Value Chain. Retrieved from https://www.hks.harvard.edu/mrcbg/CSRI/CSRI_BusinessFightsPoverty_5by20Report_September2013 .pdf

Chant, S. (2016). Galvanizing girls for development? : critiquing the shift from ‘smart’ to ‘smarter economics’. Progress In Development Studies, 16(4), pp. 314-328.

Coca Cola India. (2016). 5by20 - Women Economic Empowerment Initiative. Retrieved from https://www.coca-colaindia.com/sustainability/we/5by20women-economic-empowerment-initiative/

Fundación Coca Cola México. (2015). 5 by 20. Retrieved from http://www.fundacioncoca-cola.com.mx/programas/5_by_20.html

Gronemeyer, M. (2001). Helping. In Sachs, W. The Development Dictionary: A Guide To Knowledge as Power (pp. 55-73). Retrieved from http://www.citizens-international.org/ci2012/http://www.citizensinternational.org/ci2012/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/DevelopmentDictionary.pdf

Moser, C. (1993). Third World Policy Approaches to Women in Development. In Gender Planning and Development: Theory, Practice and Training (pp. 55-79). New York: Routledge.

The Coca-Cola Company. [The Coca-Cola Co.] . (2013, February 18). The CocaCola Company: 5by20 - Preeti Gupta [Video archive]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-kdqxdqdr0&feature=youtu.be

The Coca-Cola Company. (2016). The Coca-Cola Company Sustainable Development Goals. Retrieved from http://www.cocacolacompany.com/content/dam/journey/us/en/private/fileassets/pdf/ourcompany/TCCC-SDG-2016.pdf

Thank you and I hope you enjoy reading this blog entry.

Best,

Andrea Padilla