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West Bengal Forum on Business Partnerships for Sustainable Development The West Bengal Forum on Business Partnerships for Sustainable Development evolved out of the need to promote networking and coordination among business, government agencies and civil society groups in West Bengal. The idea, which germinated from CSM’s first annual conference on Corporate Citizenship in 2001, was to foster innovative tri-sector partnerships in various sectors so as to encourage state-wide initiatives on the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic development, environmental responsibility and social justice. In April 2002, a roundtable hosted by CSM endorsed the proposal for a West Bengal Forum on Business Partnerships for Sustainable Development and thereafter, with a round of follow-ups, the Forum – a pioneering work and an important milestone in CSM’s journey – was finally launched in October 2002. The Forum’s three-fold goals are to:
We realised clearly that to ensure compatibility of the work of the Forum with CSM’s five main workstreams – catering to business, labour/ workers, consumers, governance and investors – we needed to channelise into specific initiatives. Since the overwhelming demand for attention came from the Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises on the one hand and from the Information and Communication Technology segment from the other, the SME and ICT Initiatives were born in 2004. Over the past two years, they have served as a platform for awareness generation and networking between key stakeholders. More about these two initiatives: SME Initiative: meant to foster partnership between the SME sector, government, the financiers and the business service providers, the idea for this initiative came from CSM’s 3rd Annual International conference which focused on the theme of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises and examined the potential for roping in this largely untapped segment to the CSR ambit. CSM’s maiden initiative in this sector has focused on the acute lack of information in the SME sector about sustainable financial support and technical assistance/ business support services. Peep in to our SME world here! CSM_SME Brainstorming Final Report Oct 15 2004 ICT Initiative: originally an attempt to link to past CSM advocacy efforts to promote debate on bridging the digital divide and linking ICT to sustainable development, this initiative at present focuses on ICT education, academia and the private sector. ICT is perceived as an engine of growth with great potential for bringing development benefits to West Bengal. With this in mind, and with crucial inputs from industry, the initiative is working to promote dialogue between academia and industry with a view to improve the employability potential (includes communication skills and better awareness of workplace ethics) of the prospective labour force employed by this sector. Have a glimpse of CSM’s work here! CSM Final ICT Initiative Brainstorming Report |