Late last year the 193 Member States of the United Nations adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals in a valiant quest to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. The organisation is driving business awareness and action as a means of supporting the achievement of its Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
The United Nations’ Global Compact is built on the premise that companies have an important role to play in improving the world by, firstly, doing business responsibly and, secondly, by pursuing opportunities to provide solutions to the world’s greatest challenges. Al Baraka Banking Group announced that it had recently joined the United Nations global Compact.
Mr Adnan Ahmed Yousif, President and Chief Executive of Bahrain-based Al Baraka Banking Group, who is also Chairman of the South African subsidiary, said he was proud of the group’s deep commitment to social responsibility and sustainability, which was at the core of its business strategy. He added that Islamic finance was well-positioned to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and that it was, therefore, quite natural for the group to have joined the United Nations’ Global Compact.
Commenting, the Chief Executive of Al Baraka Bank in South Africa, Mr Shabir Chohan, said: “One of the core value we espouse is that of making a social contribution. We have in place a long-standing and strategically-focused Corporate Social Investment (CSI) programme, through which we are able to impact positively on disadvantaged individuals and organisations across South Africa.”
He said that the poverty trap in the country was an inescapable fact, but stressed that many private sector enterprises were assisting in closing the gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’.
“As a significant private sector player in this country, Al Baraka Bank has long accepted the reality of South Africa and delivers an ongoing response designed to channel corporate social investment funds into strategically identified areas of need, inclusive of education, humanitarianism, health, poverty alleviation and security. Pleasingly and as a subsidiary of the Al Baraka Banking Group, our CSI programme is enabling us to contribute locally towards the achievement of three of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, namely No Poverty, Good Health and Well-Being and Quality Education”.
