Show details for "Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) – an Instrument to Enhance Development Issues in TNCs´ Activities"
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Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) – an Instrument to Enhance Development Issues in TNCs´ Activities| Working Group | Transnational Corporations and Development
| | Abstract | This research has been carried out on behalf of the German Development Institute (GDI) and the German Society for Technical Cooperation (GTZ). It evolved from a comparative study of how the policies of three donor countries, Netherlands, Sweden and United Kingdom, integrate Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) into their respective development cooperation policies.
The evaluation of SRI in various European States and the United States reveals that the SRI market is a world wide emerging market. It has a strong potential to lead TNCs and other businesses to consider social, environmental and human rights issues in their business activities. SRI is interest driven mainly in a two-fold manner, firstly attracting investors and secondly, taking precautions for a good corporate reputation. However, up to now SRI activities are focussing on the situation in the industrial countries themselves. From the business side (institutional) investors have the potential to introduce developmental issues into SRI as is shown by the Pharmaceutical Shareowners Group, an international cooperation of 14 institutional investors that are concerned about the world wide crisis of the health system as well as the attitude of corporations towards intellectual property rights and the production of generica.
Up to now, it is mainly the United Kingdom where the Department or International Development (DFID) systematically attempts to relate SRI to development by supporting financially the initiative Just Pensions. Questions are: (a) whether and how SRI instruments can be included in development cooperation policies; (b) how institutional investors can be motivated to consider development issues in their investment policies. | | Name of Author | Brigitte | | Surname of Author | Hamm | | Institute | Institute for Development and Peace (INEF) | | Street | Geibelstr. 41 | | Postcode | 47057 | | City | Duisburg | | Country | Germany | | Telephone | +49-203-3794426 | | Fax | +49-203-3794425 | | Email | hamm(AT)uni-duisburg.de |
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