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The chapter reflected the views of all government and non-government participants on the current state of CSR practices and aspects of social development in Saudi Arabia. Findings were presented thematically focusing on the understanding and evaluation of current CSR practice in Saudi Arabia, the Saudisation programme and capacity building and training needs in Saudi Arabia.

In relation to the current state of CSR understanding in Saudi Arabia, participants offered a wide range of views and ideas on topics related to CSR concept, purpose, practice and beneficiaries. These views reflected the participants’ own understanding

of CSR as well as their evaluation of the way CSR was currently being practiced. Participants emphasised that the concept of CSR was not agreed upon, and argued that there was a lack of clear understanding among Saudi companies of what CSR was. They thought that the concept of CSR was often mixed and confused with other practices such as charity, public relations and marketing. Interestingly though, it was clear that these views, in the private sector, were not applicable to their own understanding of CSR and were mostly limited to their evaluation of “other” companies’ understanding of CSR. They stated that their own CSR work was not confused with charity or PR practices and was mostly related to training, education and capacity building in the community as part of their role in addressing community challenges. In relation to the purpose of CSR, participants’ views ranged from it being

mainly a help to communities to being a mutual help to communities and business or a way of supporting the government address societal challenges.

On the current practice of CSR and what it actually does, participants agreed that it mostly focused on community challenges and contributed to social development by helping individuals and communities through the provision of training, education and building of human capacity. It was recognised that there was a clear, strategic move within the private sector to establish dedicated CSR departments run by suitably qualified staff with the responsibility of planning and executing CSR programmes. Importantly, participants highlighted a significant change in the way CSR is being practiced through realising that CSR training programmes needed to be linked to or leading to employment opportunities, entrepreneurship and innovation. Participants also expressed the view that CSR beneficiaries should include specific target groups such as youth, women and orphans with tailored training programmes to suite market

needs. Interestingly, the findings revealed a contrast between the Saudi companies’ relatively well defined understanding of their own CSR work being focused on training and education and helping the community and their assessment of the lack of clear understanding of CSR amongst other Saudi companies.

Although it was recognised that the Saudisation programme was not directly related to CSR, it was included in this analysis due to the overlap between its main aim of enhancing the skills and employment of Saudi citizens and the vision proposed in this work for using CSR as a vehicle to help improve training and skills of Saudi Citizens. In other words, through the understanding of the challenges and limitations of the Saudisation programme, it is hoped that more could be learned to help better plan and implement CSR initiatives linking the Saudi private and public sectors. It became clear, based on views expressed by non-government participants that Saudi citizens needed to be better trained and qualified to be eligible for employment in the private sector. Despite continuing government efforts, the private sector appeared to remain very critical of the programme citing a number of challenges and limitations to this policy. These included the higher cost of employing Saudi citizens compared to non- Saudis, as well as a recognised difference in skills and work culture in favour of the latter. Interestingly, it appeared that some private sector employers offered low level and non-critical employment opportunities to Saudi citizens to enable them [the employers] to access government incentives leading to the Saudisation programme becoming limited to low level jobs.

Participants expressed very clear views on the types of capacity building and training programmes needed in Saudi Arabia by emphasising that training should be targeted and tailored to the specific needs of the labour market, with strong

emphasis on training programmes that were linked to defined employment opportunities. They also emphasised the need for novel, creative and sustainable capacity building and training programmes supported by a strategy and vision. A number of specific examples of basic skills and training needs were suggested and included IT skills, personal development, time management, CV writing, planning, team work, leadership, work culture and work ethics skills. On the strategic needs and directions of training, skills and capacity building in Saudi Arabia, participants expressed the need for expanding the industrial sector in Saudi Arabia and for the private sector to organise and run more training courses to help develop the Saudi workforce.

Participants offered a wide range of views and recommendations related to the topics presented in this chapter. On the requirements needed to improve current CSR practices in Saudi Arabia, government participants accepted that the Ministry should do more to encourage and support CSR work. The non-government participants highlighted a number of potential areas where improvements could be implemented including national and business strategies, legislation of CSR, types of CSR programmes and public-private partnerships. It was generally agreed amongst participants that there was no clear overall CSR strategy in Saudi Arabia. This included both national as well as business strategies. A need for CSR to be more firmly integrated into the long term business strategy of Saudi companies was expressed. One of the key suggestions for improving CSR practice in Saudi Arabia included the idea of legislation and regulation of CSR work making it much more defined and clear. In this regard, some participants called for CSR to become a mandatory practice. Most notably, a national CSR coordination and implementation

body was stated to be needed to help organise, coordinate and regulate CSR work among companies. As for the CSR projects, participants suggested that they needed to be tailored to suit the needs of the Saudi society and ensure that overlap between projects is avoided. It was clear that partnership between the public and private sectors was an area where many participants agreed that more needed to be done. In this context, participants often referred to the difference between “short term” and often “one off” charitable and PR activities being a dominant form of current CSR practices. They contrasted this with the need for more “strategic” and “long term” types of activities, which would need to be more structured and organised. Details of the types of such activities were not provided, but the concept was explored. The only exception perhaps was the frequent mention of “training and education” as a long term idea which was often linked to job creation.

In relation to the education and training aspects of the Saudisation programme, which could potentially be relevant to CSR implementation, suggestions included placing much more emphasis on the education and training of Saudi citizens to help them prepare for and meet the demands of the job market, introducing stricter government regulations to enforce the programme, improving the work conditions to help attract Saudi citizens and offering more incentives to employers.

Chapter Six: Findings and Analysis

Social Development Centres and a Potential Role

6.1. Introduction

As discussed in chapter three, in order to address current social development, skills and employment challenges in the Kingdom, a new strategy involving the Saudi government, the private sector and local Saudi communities is needed. In this context, an appropriate form of CSR could potentially offer a viable solution to these challenges. The old tradition and expectation of governments alone being responsible for the welfare of citizens, which is still largely the case in Saudi Arabia being an example of a rentier economy state, is changing due to increasing demands on government budgets. This has resulted in increased government expectations for help from the private sector through public-private partnerships. In this context, this chapter presents findings and analysis related to the idea of a government role in CSR implementation in Saudi Arabia, with a focus on preparing Saudi citizens for the requirement of the private job market and offering them employment opportunities. This is presented through a detailed investigation of the current role of the government run social development centres (SDCs) and the views of all participants towards a potential role for government in CSR implementation.

One of the main aims of this research was to assess the suitability of the SDCs for a potential role in CSR implementation through an evaluation of their current role and capacity before seeking participants’ views on the idea of public-private partnerships and in the implementation of CSR. It is important to note, however, that this chapter does not discuss SDC’s actual CSR work, as they have not, to date, been directly involved in any CSR work in Saudi Arabia. Rather, the focus is on evaluating the current state of SDCs and assessing their potential to be involved in future partnerships to deliver CSR initiatives in Saudi Arabia. As discussed in the methods

chapter, participants were asked what they knew about the SDCs and how they perceived them. They were also asked to evaluate the current role of the SDCs and how to improve it. In addition, participants were asked about their experiences with public-private partnerships. Finally, they were asked to provide their thoughts on a potential role for government and SDCs in CSR implementation and how best to utilise it. The findings are presented thematically under the following headings:

1. Awareness of the SDCs and evaluation of their current role 2. Public-private partnerships in social development

3. A potential role for the government and SDCs in CSR implementation