Corporate social responsibility across Middle East and North Africa

This paper attempts to synthesise the reports prepared by various authors, who live and work in their homeland in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), on the notion of “corporate social responsibility” (“CSR”). The reports are prepared as a prologue for a workshop organised by New Jordanian Research Centre (URJC) on strengthening “CSR” in the businesses of the region. The authors come from different backgrounds. They were invited not to engage in an academic exercise but to capture and reflect upon the “realities” of the debate in their countries on the basis of their role as proactive participants. The objective was to detect common elements and patterns in the issues of and approaches to “CSR” in the MENA region. The authors were asked to use a common format for their reports, but left free in their approach.