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Corporate Social Responsibility in Tanzania

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Corporate Social Responsibility in Sub-Saharan Africa

Part of the book series: CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance ((CSEG))

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Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) origins traced with early industrialists is now viewed as “one of, if not the most important issue of our time” [Hopkins (The planetary bargain: Corporate social responsibility comes of age. Macmillan, 2007)]. Its concept is dynamic, multifaceted and global; but it has proved to be a contentious matter across the world. It is a plethora of concepts that have emerged to express the role and responsibilities of business in society [Judy (Corporate Social Responsibility in Africa: Definitions, Issues and Processes, 2012)] which has developed a vast body of literature that supports and critiques its principle of the triple bottom line that has left a lot of un-attempted questions from practitioners and academia in most developing countries and, in particular, Tanzania. These questions, among others include what role do politicians, government regulation, legislation, and voluntary standards play in the adoption of CSR strategies? Which CSR theory is currently adopted? What are the benefits of CSR practices taking into consideration its cost to implement? What are the challenges and opportunities faced by both public sector and private companies seeking to engage in CSR programmes? The aim of this paper is to explore and critically review how CSR is embryonic and being practiced in Tanzania. The questions asked above are examined in a deep review of literature. The study employs inductive approach with a cross-sectional literature review which applies the analytical research method to underpin the subject matter. More than 40 current articles, including peer and non-peer reviewed research papers, surveys and several materials such as books and news paper have been gathered and reviewed accordingly. The analysis reveals that the CSR awareness and practice in Tanzania is increasing at a significant rate, despite the fact that there are a lot of challenges and barriers which hinder its promotion. A number of factors influencing and promoting CSR practices, including CSR opportunities in Tanzania, are also explored in detail. By accumulating knowledge of, and recommending continues improvements in CSR, this work is expected to be of high interest to create awareness to practitioners, researchers, academicians, politician’s, investors and the nation at large. This in turn will help to improve the country’s competitiveness in attracting CSR practices, as well as encouraging both foreign and local entrepreneurs to comply with CSR standards and codes of practice.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    While colonial codes of conduct were created to deepen the colonial interest of wealth accumulation, their pertinence in addressing post-independence socio-political and economic issues in Tanzania, and CSR practices in particular, has been questionable (Shivji, 1975).

  2. 2.

    The Arusha Declaration was pronounced by President Julius Nyerere on 5 February 1967. Outlining the principles of Ujamaa, Nyerere’s vision of socialism sought to bring the economic and political spheres under state control. The Ujamaa policy called for self-reliance oriented economic and political policies to replace the capitalist private sector market economy inherited from the colonial government (Ngowi, 2007)

  3. 3.

    http://sa.usaid.gov/southern_africa/content/global-development-alliance, as accessed on 9th April 2014.

  4. 4.

    World Guide to CSR (2010).

  5. 5.

    http://www.thefoundation.or.tz/foundation-news-view.php?newsID=450, as accessed on 10th March 2014.

  6. 6.

    www.iblf.org/~/…/CSRTraining_AKDN.ashx, as accessed on 2nd April 2014.

  7. 7.

    http://www.roundtableafrica.net/getattachment/News-and-Events/RTA-News/Training-Programs-2011-2012/RTA-training-programs.pdf.aspx, as accessed on 10th April 2014.

  8. 8.

    http://www.unprme.org/participants/view-participants.php?partid=2814, as accessed on 5th April 2014.

  9. 9.

    Visser W (2012) Corporate Social Responsibility in Developing Countries Chapter 21, page 481, available on line at http://www.waynevisser.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/chapter_wvisser_csr_dev_countries.pdf, as accessed 2nd May, 2015.

  10. 10.

    Visser W (2012) Corporate Social Responsibility in Developing Countries Chapter 21, page 483, available on line at http://www.waynevisser.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/chapter_wvisser_csr_dev_countries.pdf, as accessed 2nd May 2015.

  11. 11.

    http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/en/countries/east-africa/tanzania/, accessed on 16th April 2014.

  12. 12.

    Ibid accessed on 28th February 2015.

  13. 13.

    Partnership Landscape: Mader (2012).

  14. 14.

    http://www.pmo.go.tz/department.php?cat=3&subcat=87

  15. 15.

    Partnership Landscape: Mader (2012).

  16. 16.

    Transparency International http://www.transparency.org/, as accessed on 3rd February 2013.

  17. 17.

    Overview of corruption in Tanzania http://www.u4.no/helpdesk/helpdesk/query.cfm?id=201; Tanzania Corruption Tracker http://www.corruptiontracker.or.tz/ and Business Anticorruption Portal, Tanzania country profile: http://www.business-anti-corruption.com/country-profiles/sub-saharan-africa/tanzania/snapshot/

  18. 18.

    The United Nations Convention against Corruption http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/CAC/signatories.html

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tanzania Institute of Accountancy, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

    Samuel E. Fulgence

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  1. Samuel E. Fulgence
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Correspondence to Samuel E. Fulgence .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Robert Gordon University, School of Applied Social Studies, Aberdeen, United Kingdom

    Stephen Vertigans

  2. London Metropolitan University, London, United Kingdom

    Samuel O. Idowu

  3. Cologne Business School, Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    René Schmidpeter

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Fulgence, S.E. (2016). Corporate Social Responsibility in Tanzania. In: Vertigans, S., Idowu, S., Schmidpeter, R. (eds) Corporate Social Responsibility in Sub-Saharan Africa. CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26668-8_6

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