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Re: Taking a stance on industry CSR

Dear Norbert

Thanks you for this excellent explanation of the reality behind tobacco companies' dabbling in so-called CSR programmes.

Earlier this year INGCAT's member organisations agreed a position statment on tobacco industry CSR programmes that purport to address health and welfare issues, entitled "The socially responsible tobacco company - another misleading descriptor". The thrust of the position is that:

"NGOs’ responsibility is to protect the interests of their beneficiaries: partnerships that promote the interests of tobacco companies as they currently operate are incompatible with that duty. INGCAT members refuse to support, endorse or co-operate with tobacco companies’ CSR activities on health or poverty relief, and call on other health and welfare organisations to join us in this stance."

The position statement does not intend to discourage tobacco companies from making genuine efforts to act as responsible businesses. It is an attempt to expose the PR reality behind the programmes many tobacco companies currently trumpet as CSR activity, and ensure that NGOs do not become, through association with such programmes, unwitting PR agents for tobacco companies.

The full position statement can be viewed at http://www.ingcat.org/PDFs/CSRstatement.doc and I'd encourage organisations to endorse it.

Best wishes

Doreen McIntyre, Director, INGCAT (International Non Governmental Coalition Against Tobacco)

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Re: Sponsorship

It should have been noted that the research for this topic was sponsored in part by the World Health Organization.