SM Foundation: Impacting the community through sustainable development
Starweek sits down with the SM Foundation leadership: Debbie Pe-Sy, executive director of SM Foundation and Chito Macapagal, SM Foundation trustee and corporate affairs head, and talks about the foundation’s 35th year, its role in achieving the 2030 Susta
ASK people one word about SM, and the first thing that comes to their mind is shopping—and with good reason. The company, after all, is responsible for bringing in many esteemed brands to Filipinos’ consciousness. But, as we come to know SM Foundation in this interview, there is one other word that people should associate with the institution: help.
How does a corporate juggernaut like SM manage to address concerns such as sustainable development and providing help to communities?
CHITO MACAPAGAL, SM Foundation trustee and corporate affairs head: “As people, we are helpful and it can be seen in our culture of bayanihan—in our country, we will never run out of opportunities to help each other, big or small. SM has a symbiotic relationship with its host communities—as we grow, they also grow with us; and as our communities grow, and we also grow.”
The 2030 Agenda of the United Nations Development Program envisions sustainable and equitable economies and societies worldwide. What is the role of the SM Foundation in helping the government meet this goal?
DEBBIE PE-SY, SM Foundation executive director: SM Foundation—founded before the campaigns on Sustainable Development were brought to the consciousness of many—believes that there are basic things that people need to live a decent life—food sufficiency, access to health care, access to education, and access to shelter.
Food Sufficiency. With farmers and fishermen among the poorest sectors of society, Tatang Henry Sy Sr. made social investments in train- ing farmers on up-to-date farming techniques to help their families have sufficient food sources. Right now, SM Foundation’s farmers’ training program is working with the DA and the DSWD to help families in the Pantawid Program so that they may have food on the table or have a source of income. Moreover, the foundation also now trains the urban poor communities proper urban farming techniques to help their families attain food sufficiency and combat malnutrition.
Access to Education. Tatang has mentioned in several occasions that he believes in the power of education to tip the scales of inequality. Today, SM Foundation grants college and technical-vocational scholarships as well as builds public school buildings with classrooms conducive for learning. This helps close the gap in the quality of education between public and private schools. Access to Quality Health Care. We help provide quality healthcare by renovating and upgrading pubhealth centers and government medical facilities, thus making qual- ity healthcare more accessible to rural communities, as well as decongesting city hospitals.
Access to Shelter. Housing remains a critical element to achieve sustainable development and SM Foundation, through SM Cares, has been helping provide shelters for Tacloban and other calamity-affected communities.
The SM Foundation gives emphasis on Health and Wellness, Livelihood and Environmental Sustainability. Why do you emphasize these?
CHITO MACAPAGAL: Strong communities are defined to have enough food, education, quality health care, and adequate shelter. When families access these basic social services, they are able to be in a position to contribute to other issues like economic growth, serve as guardians to both life on land and water, and be local, national and global players in sustainable development. But until their basic needs are met, they will not be in a position to create a difference in their own communities, let alone the nation nor the world.
What is the significance of having sustainability practices in place to ensure the continuity of efforts in social development programs and environmental conservation?
CHITO MACAPAGAL: Collectively, SM as a group is working on weaving Sustainability and Sustainable Development in the fabric of its business. As a company, SM’s path to sustainable growth lies in energizing local economies. As such, we want to create a positive impact to both our share holders and the communities we are operating in by creating jobs, stimulating inclusive supply chains, facilitating development, providing small enterprises access to finance, and helping build disaster resilient communities, as well as promoting solid waste management and the Green Retail Agenda, thus demonstrating that business growth can go hand-in-hand with social development and environmental protection.
What would SM Foundation strive for in the coming years?
DEBBIE PE-SY: For SM Foundation, we would like to be well on our way to two things: further improve the quality of our programs by creating more strategic synergies among our initiatives and creating greater impact, and increase our reach by creating strategic alliances, partnerships and collaborations.
Also, we would like to see SM succeed not only in their growth ambition but more importantly in achieving social developmental and environmental growth goals it has set for the communities it supports.
When it comes to helping people, it’s those grand singular gestures of charity—punctuated by pomp and ceremony that seem to have come straight from the silver screen with their drama and grandeur—that often get noticed and pegged as highlights or milestones. And while those acts indeed deserve praise and adulation, as it turns out, it’s the quiet instances that have the most impact in the long run. SM Foundation is proof of that.