President, ECOSF addresses the 9th International Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Summit – 2017 in Islamabad
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National Forum for Environment and Health (NFEA) organized the 9th International Corporate Social Responsibility Summit – 2017 in a local Hotel in Islamabad on 19th January, 2017. Federal Secretary for Ministry of Climate Change Dr. Syed Abu Ahmad Akif was the Chief Guest on this occasion. Dr. Manzoor H Soomro, President, ECOSF along with Dr. Ghazanfar Abbas and Ms. Sumbal Naz participated in the conference. Besides many other participants, the representatives from Oil and Gas Development Corporation, Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company, National Bank of Pakistan, World Learning Organization, and Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital also participated in the event. Purpose of the Summit was to encourage and come forward to allocate more funds for the betterment of the society and increase donations particularly for health, housing and education in the country. Brig. (R) Tariq Qadir, from Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company explained their Company’s view and future social development plans in Thar area. Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Nadya Karim Shaw from World Learning Organization emphasized on “Funding the Gaps” that do exists between the donors and the recipients. She was of the opinion that we may have to re-think the rules for enhanced funding and donations for developing well-being of the common population.
In his address Prof. Dr. Manzoor H Soomro suggested that the best use of the CSRs should be in the field of basic education particularly Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE) for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. He was of the view that education can bring the poor people out of poverty and emphasized that the number of scholarships from private sector to educational institutes must increase manifolds. He also suggested that if one family can commit to educate one illiterate then we as a nation can reduce illiteracy to a great extent. “We need to Mind the Gaps, before we fund those gaps”, he added. Each institutes and companies must understand where the gaps are and prior invest in critical understanding of the issues and one of the major gap in society is lack of education and critical minds. Prof. Soomro quoted the example of Germany, where Chamber of Commerce and Industries fund education in a structured way through their own endorsements for education. “We need to have our industries involved in funding for non-formal education which involves the process of inquiry and nurturing a Childs mind through inquiry based learning, he said. Quoting example from ECOSF experiences, he pointed out that Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE) programs are being implemented in its member states and the results are very satisfying.