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Published February 07, 2023 / Public Affairs

Taking into account CSR and ESG issues in Africa

20230207-AIFA-RA

Paris, February 7, 2023 - The Brazzaville Foundation was invited to speak at the 6th Africa Investments Forum & Awards (AIFA), which brings together each year more than 500 public and private company directors, experts and institutions, for a day of information and exchange on business opportunities on the African continent, particularly in the energy, infrastructure and urban development sectors.

Roundtable "How are ESG issues taken into account by companies and investors in Africa?", AIFA 2023.

Richard Amalvy, Chief Executive of the Brazzaville Foundation, spoke on a panel moderated by Pierre-Samuel Guedj, President of Affectio Mutandi, which focused on the consideration of ESG issues by companies and investors in Africa. The acronym ESG is used by the financial community to designate environmental, social (and societal) and governance criteria, which constitute the three pillars of the extra-financial analysis of a responsible investment project.

 

In response to an initial question from Pierre-Samuel Guedj on the vision, approach and methodology for taking ESG criteria into account, Richard Amalvy indicated that for the Brazzaville Foundation "by including ESG and CSR ingredients in our engineering, we are giving a transformative capacity to the programmes that we co-develop with our African partners. We hope that this method will also have a transformative capacity for those who come to practice their CSR and ESG with us: how will they let themselves be transformed by this partnership through a South-North exchange and not a North-South exchange?".

 

These considerations are all the more important as other forums are discussing the industrialisation of the continent, particularly through the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which could boost intra-African trade by 33% and reduce the continent's trade deficit by 50%.

 

Richard Amalvy also took advantage of this op-ed to denounce the behaviours that ignore African knowledge and skills, and that aim to strictly impose Western models without taking into account essential African cultural realities, such as the temporal dimension.

 

Other speakers on the panel were David Chollet, Partner at Accuracy, Samuel Monteiro, Senior ESG & Impact Manager at Investors & Partners, Sophie Pierson, Director of CSR & Compliance at Rubis Group, Martine Jauroyon, Director of Sustainable Development, Innovation and Commitment at Egis Group. The event was co-organized by Leaders League and Décideurs Magazine

 

To learn more, discover the Partnership page of the Brazzaville Foundation.