To recognise excellent corporate social responsibility projects by businesses in East Africa, Bank M Tanzania Ltd in partnership with the East African Business Council (EABC) and The EastAfrican newspaper, awarded companies from the region at the first East Africa Corporate Social Responsibility 2010 Awards held at a ceremony on the sideline of the World Economic Forum for Africa 2010 held in Dar es Salaam.

The aim of the awards is to showcase good practice by recognising what constitutes best-in-class CSR.
According to Nimrodi Mkono, chairman of Bank M Tanzania Ltd, the concept for the awards was born out of an awareness that corporate social responsibility activities have increased substantially over the past decade in East Africa.

There has been debate about what constitutes good CSR and how it can act as a positive force for the region’s social, environmental and economic development.

The East Africa CSR Awards joins the Asian CSR Awards, Arabia CSR Awards and the Malaysian Prime Minister’s CSR Awards, in recognising regional company initiatives.

Four Kenyan firms were declared winners out of a list of 20 shortlisted regional firms.These were: Unilever Tea Kenya Ltd for Best Workplace Practice for the ‘Lightning Detection System’ in the regional competition; Kenya’s Safaricom Foundation for ‘The Safaricom Foundation World of Difference Project', Eastern Produce Ltd for environmental excellence for its ‘EPK Sustainable Environmental Management Programme and Mabati Rolling Mills was highly commended for the ‘Mabati rolling Mills (MRM) Project in Kenya.’

The Tanzania-based Sandali Wood Industries Ltd, a newly established firm in the north coast of Tanzania was awarded the Most Ethical and Responsible Business Practice for Supply Chains in the ‘Responsible Chain Of Custody’ category while the Uganda-based Nile Breweries Ltd was highly commended for ‘From Grain to Glass - reducing HIV and Aids in Our Supply Chains’ initiative.

Tanzanian company Unilever Tea Tanzania Ltd was highly commended for ‘Indigenous Forest Conservation’ in the country.

Elvis Musiba, chairman of the panel of judges for the Awards said they received an impressive number of outstanding submissions.

Mr Musiba said that the awards emphasize the enormous potential and the role that the private sector plays in promoting social and environmentally sustainable development in Africa.

“The entries made the judging process a very difficult one,” said Mr Musiba adding that the initiative will recognise all the companies that submitted entries. Earl Shipp, president of Dow Africa — which sponsored the award on Sustainable and Scalable Community Investment — presented the award to Uganda-based Tullow Uganda Operations Pty Ltd for its ‘Tullow Kaiso-Tonya Programme.’