Dubai Chamber’s Center for Responsible Business launches ENGAGE Dubai in association with Business in the Community (BITC) UK, an organization supported by Prince Charles, that inspires, engages and supports companies on responsible business
In cooperation with Business in the Community (BITC), UK, Dubai Chamber’s Centre for Responsible Business (CRB) launched the most exciting Employee Volunteering Program, ENGAGE Dubai, for the first time in the region. Through ENGAGE Dubai a large number of interested companies get access to a platform to launch their employee volunteering efforts with organizations seeking volunteers.
Organised as part of the CRB Strategic Partnership Program, the idea behind the setting up of ENGAGE Dubai is to provide active support for Dubai businesses to fully understand and act on their role in community development by building strategic partnerships with community organizations in the emirate.
The ENGAGE programme has been established since 2002 with the aim of increasing the extent and scale of employee involvement in the development of healthy and sustainable local communities. Operating in other major cities such as Paris, Frankfurt, Istanbul, and Hong Kong, BITC mobilises business
for good. BITC is supported by Prince Charles, who is its President, and its aim is to inspire, engage, support and challenge companies on responsible business, working through four areas: Community, Environment, Marketplace and Workplace. With more than 850 companies in membership, BITC represents one in five of the UK private sector workforce and convenes a network of global partners.
According to Dr. Belaid Rettab, Director of the Centre for Responsible
Business, Engage Dubai will provide networking opportunities for like minded
companies and organizations and will give opportunities to companies and community partners to develop long term partnerships. He said, “Currently, many businesses in Dubai have not fully understood their role in community development. The businesses may provide charity, but have not tied their corporate giving to their companies’ strategic goals neither have they identified non-financial contributions to community development.”
“On the other hand, foundations, NGOs, and public entities may need more know-how on how to reach businesses and explain their non-financial needs. As a result, corporate giving can be one-off public relations initiatives rather than ongoing strategic support with expected outcomes. At CRB, our goal is to get a large number of companies engaged and benefit from the global programme,” added Dr Belaid.
Maria-Jose Subiela, representative of Business in the Community, UK, during her presentation at the launch said, “We are glad that Dubai is the first in the region to join the programme and we look forward to ENGAGE expanding in the area. As the programme’s ideology is to not leave everything to the Government I urge individuals and companies to step in and contribute through their CSR activities thus contributing to the overall programme as good residents and as concerned global citizens.”
Said Gillian Foster, Manager, CRB at Dubai Chamber, “At present there is only 4% informal CSR activities carried out in Dubai and the CRB wants to be a catalyst for the ongoing programme as we personally see the launch of ENGAGE Dubai as a starting off point to formally adopt CSR best practices in the emirate on a larger scale.”
The benefits of participating in ENGAGE Dubai are numerous including exposure to international companies that demonstrate best practices in community social investment; increased motivation to employees-enriching their work lives by actively contributing to the success of Dubai; enhanced company profiles for new local and international candidates for employment and networking opportunities with like-minded companies and organizations.
Participating community partners benefit by sharing time and resources from experienced people in their fields; learning how to identify and communicate non-financial needs and acquire exposure to an international arena of best practices in the field of community social investment.
