Business in the Community is strengthening its partnership with two key partner organisations in Africa – the National Business Initiative (NBI) and the African Institute of Corporate Citizenship(AICC), with the aim of:

NBI is BITC’s partner organisation in South Africa. A business led not

for profit organisation with over 150 companies. NBI has operated for

the last ten years as the leading business coalition focused on the role

of business in sustainable development and is the regional partner of

the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

AICC is a pan African not for profit organisation working to promote

corporate citizenship across Africa. Current programmes include a focus

on the finance sector, competitiveness and innovation with a capacity

building programme for NGO’s in 5 African countries and corporate

accountability. AICC has also recently launched the Africa Corproate

Sustainability Forum to provide a focus for responsible business

practice across the continent.

Both organisations actively support New Partnerships for Africa’s

Development (NEPAD) which includes a business commitment to:

The partnership between BITC, NBI and AICC will support the delivery of

the objectives of the Commission for Africa which will be reporting

early in 2005. NBI and AICC will also be supporting the Award for

Excellence in corporate citizenship in Africa which will be presented on

July 5th at BITC’s annual awards evening at the Albert Hall.

Julia Cleverdon welcomed this partnership as a demonstration of BITC’s

commitment to play an active role in the action plan being developed

under the UK chairmanship of G8. She said:

“We know the importance of collaborative action by business and hope

that we can contribute to the development of such networks in Africa.

Many of our member companies have extensive business interests and our

partnership with NBI and AICC will support their efforts to improve the

social, environmental and economic impact of these operations.”

Notes to Editors

Media Contacts:

Paul Williams, PR & Press Assistant, Business in the Community, tel:

020 7566 8666, mobile: 077 9325 7200 or email: [email protected]

Peter Kapelus, Chief Executive, AICC, tel: +27 11 643 6604 or email:

[email protected]

Andre Fourie, Chief Executive, NBI, tel: +27 11 482 5100 or email:

[email protected]

A Deloitte survey of South African companies released last week showed

that skills and education development was the first priority for

companies, with black economic empowerment in second place. 94% of

companies surveyed have specific budget focused on social programmes

although less than half the respondents officially audited the impact

and success of the investment.

Business in the Community is a unique movement in the UK of 700 member

companies. Our purpose is to inspire, challenge, engage and support

business in continually improving its positive impact on society.

Together, our member companies employ over 15.7 million people across

200 countries. In the UK, our members employ over 1 in 5 of the private

sector workforce.

Membership of Business in the Community is a commitment to action and

to the continual improvement of the company’s impact on society. Our

members commit to:

Further information about Business in the Community can be found at the

website www.bitc.org.uk