Regulation of Corporate Social Responsibility Practices in Tanzania

CSR is generally concerned with treating the stakeholders of the firm ethically or in a responsible manner. Stakeholders of the firm are all those who are likely to be affected direct or indirectly by the operations of the said firm, they include; the society, employees of the firm, the government, consumers of the firm’s products or services, the environment and individual persons within the proximity of the firms’ operational area. Stakeholders exist both within a firm and outside. The two terms “Ethically” and “responsible” means treating stakeholders in a manner deemed acceptable in civilized societies. The word “Social” on the other hand, incorporates economic responsibility of firms to its stakeholders. The wider aim of social responsibility is to create higher and higher standards of living, while preserving the profitability of the corporation, for people both within and outside the corporation. This study focuses on the CSR practices in Tanzania and calls for a legislative action intervention to cater for proper CSR practices in the country. It gives an insight understanding of the concept of CSR, provides for the major two perceptions of CSR as given by scholars, it also accounts for the reasons behind growing interest on CSR issues in our contemporary world. The study gives a brief analysis of CSR in Africa particularly Africa South of Sahara and also provides a detailed account of the current regulatory framework of corporate business in relation to CSR issues in Tanzania. Selected case studies in the banking, manufacturing, telecommunication and mining sectors have been picked to show CSR is practiced in Tanzania. The study also visits other jurisdictions with CSR legislations like India, United Kingdom and United States of America and proposes a CSR Model suitable for Tanzania, based on the social cultural and economic set up of the Tanzanian society