CSR-in-Action Relaunches Benchmarking Reports

Leading sustainability advocate and social enterprise, CSR-inAction (CiA), today announced the re-launch of its premier report on corporate responsibility, The Collective Social Investment Report (CSIR) and its spin off, the CSR-in-Action Corporate Citizenship Index (3C-Index), with reputable multinational consulting firms, Accenture and Ernst & Young (EY).

The 3C-Index is West Africa's premier rating of companies according to their approach to socio-economic and environmental governance. Launched in 2012 at the 17thNigerian Economic Summit, the CSIR is a compendium and one-stop databank for sustainable practices by organisations in Nigeria with a focus on the private sector; but including public/private enterprise, foundations and multilateral organisations.

Now in its 3rd year, the CSIR aims to foster the adoption of best practices by providing cogent comparative reports on the sustainability approach of organisations in Nigeria, while, the 3C-Index was introduced in 2013 to institute a peerbased performance evaluation mechanism that motivates organisations in Nigeria (and West Africa) to improve on their sustainability practices and reporting standards in line with globally accepted principles including the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), the International Finance Corpora- tion's (IFC) Environmental and Social Performance Standards, the Global Reporting Initiative and to promote corporate contribution to Nigeria's attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The reports have caused positive furor in the private sector. In addition to this level of acceptance and attention from both local and international stakeholders, CSR-in-Action with the technical support of Accenture and Ernst & Young has reviewed the framework to ensure that the index and the report are of same standard as internationally acclaimed indices such as the FTSE 4 Good and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. With this in mind, the Executive Director, CSR-in-Action, Bekeme Masade, said: "Partnerships are ever more crucial to our success this year. An intrinsic part of being responsible is responsiveness and we trust that more companies will respond to our quest for information in a more timely manner.

Our approach to stakeholder engagement and management is so much more sophisticated that we expect more robust data. We are especially excited that we have garnered the support of such reputable knowledge partners as Ernst & Young and Accenture; their managing partners have shown why these companies have remained relevant and signify integrity in today's world.