TRADITIONALLY community development has been considered to be the preserve of the government alone. After independence, it was for the first tine that the nation witnessed widespread activism of Nongovernment Organisations (NGOs) in the fields of health, education, disease fighting, awareness campaign against social ills, poverty alleviation, women rights and so on. But participation of the private sector in such activities was rather limited to begin with.

In the Western world, big business houses have long been engaged in philanthropic activities including social activism to build awareness about various social ills..

It is heartening that the scene is fast changing in our country with the emergence of big corporate houses, who have been showing their interest to contribute to the welfare of the community as part of their CSR. The Standard Chartered Bank Bangladesh (SCB), for example, launched a social awareness campaign against the curse of AIDS through a programme entitled" Living with HIV" into the New Year.

Hopefully, our home-grown corporate houses will increasingly come forward to address different areas of community needs.

While contributing to community development as part of CSR, what is most vital is identifying the area a particular company will focus on. The famous guru of the marketing world Philip Kotler laid emphasis on this point while talking at the sidelines of the World Marketing Summit held in the cityonThursday.

To the companies willing to enhance their CSR profile, he gave the advice, “It is not bad to spend money for different causes, but it has to have a focus.” This is the best way to channel bigger fund for a single cause thereby enabling a company to invest its money more efficiently and usefully for the community and at the same time brighten its brand image.

We hope private sector companies in Bangladesh will follow this precept underfined by Kotler and devote more funds to the community welfare agenda.