Corporate Social Responsibility in Ghana

Abstract

Societies and institutions the world over are remarkably similar. They all aim, to different degrees, at attaining political equality; social justice; human dignity; freedom from want, disease and exploitation; equal opportunities; and high per capita income equitably distributed. While different societies attach different weights and priorities to these objectives, it is largely in the political and economic means adopted for achieving these ends that societies and institutions differ. However, it is largely agreed that good governance is a fundamental building block of a just and economically prosperous society. This is as true for public governance as it is for corporate governance. Good corporate governance requires managing the cost and benefits of business activity to both internal stakeholders such as workers, shareholders, and investors; and external stakeholders such as institutions of public governance, community members, civil society etc. Setting the boundaries for how these costs and benefits are managed is partly a question of business policy and strategy and partly a question of public governance. It is within the interstices of this latter concept that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) may be found.