Nominations are open for the 2021 edition of the Sustainability & Social Investment Awards, slated for November 26, 2021, at the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel, Accra.
The Sustainability & Social Investment Awards is an initiative endorsed by the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, National Road Safety Authority among others and aimed at identifying and publicly recognizing the impact made by companies, CSI/CSR foundations, NGO’s, individuals and other implementing agencies through exemplary success in voluntarily improving the quality of life of people and communities.
The purpose of the SSI Awards is to create awareness and encourage companies in delivering high impact CSI/CSR projects that aligns with Government’s focus on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG),to adopt multi stakeholder approach which leads to excellent outcomes and also, to infuse corporate social investments and innovations in the form of approach, usage of technology and expertise towards solving developmental challenges faced by the society, individuals and communities as a whole.
The SSI Awards is five years this year and so this year’s edition is dubbed the 5th Anniversary edition. First held in 2017 with 13 participating companies, participation grew from 13 to 23 and 29 in 2018 and 2019 respectively. This shows how the awards has grown to become the most accepted awards scheme for CSR/CSI in Ghana. Besides companies adopting the awards name for their departments, we have seen tremendous impact in the projects undertaken by participating companies since the first edition.
It is uplifting indeed to see that many corporations are concerned with the wellbeing of the environment and the communities in which they operate. We still believe that more needs to be done. This year’s edition is themed “Rebuilding of the Economy on Resilience, Sustainability and Equality; The role of Technology, Partnerships and Collaborations”.
As part of its fifth anniversary celebration there will an educational series on the SDGs on all SSI Award social media handles and also there will be an unveiling of a new SDG Trophy for the awards.
The SDGs consist of 17 goals which are subdivided into 169 targets. These are applicable across both developing and developed countries. In brief, the SDGs aim to end poverty, hunger, war, misery, unfairness and inequality. Clearly, governments alone cannot achieve these goals and much more the Agenda 2030.
There is uncertainty in terms of how corporations should or could contribute towards the achievement of all the SDGs. Realistically, it may be difficult to achieve the targets as an individual company or organization. It remains true that businesses have enormous power, resources and knowledge to assist. This therefore calls for collaboration from multiple organizations and corporations working together as one to help achieve these SDGs.
More so, noting the negative economic impact that the coronavirus pandemic had exerted on businesses and our economy, it is eminent that we suffer the most as a result of our over reliance on global supply chains. In our efforts to recover and rebuild our economy we have to remember to work towards self-reliance, sustainability and equality.
To achieve these goals we cannot over emphasis the importance of the private sectors role and the need for the formation of public-private and civil society partnerships and also the use of technology. These are a pre-requisite requirement to meeting these goals. A good starting point is for companies to align their social investment visions, missions and policies with the expected outcome and governments focus on the SDGs. Businesses must approach social investment creatively. That is by creating new standards that commit their organizations to making CSR an integral part of their business.
The SDGs do not only present businesses with duties, but equally the successful implementation of the goals, strengthens the environment for doing business and building dynamic markets thereby presenting opportunities for businesses to also grow.
As businesses operating in an ecological system, let’s consider this: what is our role in this recovery journey? There are enormous opportunities for each of us as businesses, but sometimes these business opportunities needs us joining forces together. It’s not just what can my business do, but how can I and others in my industry collaborate together. This is the next edge of leadership. Companies coming together, CEOs coming together and asking what can we do together that we can’t do alone?
During this past year the world has seen a collaborative effort between all branches of society, working day and night, determined to fight the spread of and a cure or vaccine for the Covid-19 pandemic. Both private firms, public administrations and political leaderships have been working together.
As a result of this collaborative effort, thousands of lives have been saved, before this, no one thought a vaccine could be ready in less than 3years but as I speak there are a lot that are promising to be ready in less than a year.
This is an example of what we can do if we work together. Nominations will be closed on August 30, 2021. To nominate kindly visit www.ssigh.com/nomination-entry. The SSI Awards is powered by Ianmatsun Global Services Ltd in partnership with the Business and Financial Times.
