Assessing the possibility of mandating corporate social responsibility in Botswana: the case of non-governmental organisations and corporate partnerships

Abstract

Botswana has achieved phenomenal economic growth since its independence in 1966, though it has struggled to contain its socio-economic challenges. Some scholars recommend corporate social responsibility (CSR) to address African governments' failure to solve their socio-economic problems. In Botswana, corporates have not come to the rescue, with the literature describing the amounts invested by corporates in CSR as inadequate and insignificant. The literature has also suggested that CSR/corporate-NGO partnerships could enable corporates to engage in CSR more effectively; however, there is a dearth of literature on CSR in Botswana to verify this suggestion in the context of Botswana. This study aimed to gain in-depth insights into CSR and CSR partnerships in Botswana through a qualitative instrumental single nested case study of the Botswana-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) Stepping Stones International (SSI). Data was collected from online newspapers, participant testimonials, and semi-structured telephone interviews of an SSI management representative and nine participants who participated in SSI's corporate-sponsored CSR programmes. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. This study found that the Stakeholder Theory supported stakeholder reciprocity as a plausible explanation for CSR parthership's success criteria, and Resource Dependency Theory (RDT) gave clarity to NGO's role in CSR partnerships. Programme evaluation was deemed valuable to assess CSR programmes success and keep NGOs accountable. Participants evaluations confirmed that SSI's CSR strategies and approach CSR on an ad-hoc basis. Where corporates partnered with NGOs, the partnerships were able to deliver successful, sustainable CSR programmes. Inadequate understanding of CSR and CSR partnerships by corporates were identified as impediments to CSR engagement. The government of Botswana's tax incentives related to CSR were perceived as complex to retrieve and unknown to most companies. Measures recommend to stimulate CSR included educating corporates on CSR tax incentives and mandating CSR to ensure Botswana corporates participation.