The John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement (AUC)
The idea of launching a corporate sustainability capacity building program was born out of a clear need in the private sector in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia to not only understand what corporate sustainability means to their business, but to acquire the skills and know-how to go about integrating it in a manner that is effective and that will serve the bottom-line of their companies. The Gerhart Center believes that businesses can contribute to sustainable social change in a more meaningful manner if they apply a sustainability lens to the overall management of their businesses. The corporate sector, through socially-aware policies and work decisions, can have a positive impact on poverty, inequality, climate change, and the building of more participatory societies. Thus the Center’s growing work in this area became an effective way to leverage greater social responsibility and active citizenship in the Arab world. It is for this reason that Al Mansour Group supported the Gerhart Center, the leading provider of knowledge and resources for strengthening philanthropic practice in the region, in the launch of the Corporate Sustainability Capacity Building Program. This was done at the American University in Cairo in partnership with Aramex International and Abraaj Capital, along with other key entities including the International Executive Education Institute (IEEI) and the Khizandar Case Study and Research Center (KCC), in addition to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
These projects are fully in line with the promotion and advocacy of Global Compact principles in Egypt. Indirectly, they also contribute to the Millennium Development Goals through their support of, and capacity building towards, CR practitioners which enables them to design and monitor community or social investment projects in the areas of education, employment, health and the environment.