CONTEXT

‘CSR has won the battle of ideas’ - even the sceptical survey on CSR in the Economist in January 2005 conceded this much. And it is true. While the idea has been around for some five decades by now, the last 15 years have seen an unprecedented rise of CSR language, tools, actors, strategies and practices in industry all over the world. With the fall of the iron curtain and the advent of globalisation, it is business, rather than nation state governments, that have faced growing demands to address issues of societal concern and to be responsible and accountable members of our global society. Next to these developments, it is somewhat ironic to see that the very doctrines of Milton Friedman and his liberal friends - who severely criticised CSR - have led us to a situation of increased demand for CSR. The implementation of their ideas in most industrialised countries over the last two and a half decades has resulted in a situation where deregulated free markets, privatised public services and a liberalised global economy have put corporations right at the centre of public concern.

But CSR as an approach to responsibly managing an organisation is not just a topic for the business community. Increasingly, we see governments involved in promoting and fostering CSR, most notable the UK government with its CSR minister and the EU with its White Papers and the recent European Alliance for CSR. Furthermore, governments themselves, which are still responsible for roughly half of the GDP in most developed democracies, increasingly face calls for more responsible, accountable and transparent behaviour very similar to those addressed at corporations. Hence, governments all over the world are deeply involved in developing and implementing many of the CSR ideas explained in this volume. Non -governmental organisations (NGOs), for a long time the independent ‘conscience’ or ‘police’ which played a role in translating the concerns of civil society to corporations, have recently also become engaged in the CSR agenda. This has happened in part because growing CSR practices have involved various forms of collaboration, partnerships and joint initiatives between the corporate and NGO sectors. Another reason, however, is the rise in membership, budgets and global reach of these often multinational organisations. As such, NGOs face questions similar to those on the corporate CSR agenda: In whose interest do they act? To whom are they accountable? What practices are they using?

CSR then is not only a topic for business, but equally a subject for government and civil society or the NGO sector. And it is by no means confined to the developed world, or even its Anglo-American origins. Indeed, in some ways, the current growth in CSR is more marked in Europe, Japan, South Korea or Taiwan, while the rise of India and China as key players in the global economy has given CSR a firm place on their agenda as well. The presence of big business in the developed world is even argued by many to be one of the strongest drivers for CSR, not only for Western multinationals, but also for indigenous companies. In fact, companies are increasingly viewed as a beacon of hope with regard to fighting poverty, promoting economic development and showcasing an alternative in otherwise often poorly governed economies and societies.

SCOPE

You will notice that, as an encyclopaedia of CSR, we have adopted a wide and inclusive interpretation of CSR, to include related terms which all deal in different ways with the role of business in society - from corporate governance, environmental management and human rights, to development, globalisation and waste management, to mention just a few examples. By doing this, we acknowledge that CSR is an essentially contested idea and more of a cluster concept, which forms only one strand in a web of related terms, concepts and subjects.

All in all, The A to Z of CSR features around 350 entries, including 10 Core terms, 85 Key terms, and 250 Definition terms. The Core terms - which include accountability, business ethics, corporate citizenship, corporate environmental management, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, corporate sustainability, health and safety, poverty and stakeholder theory - are the most extensively discussed, including a definition of each term, how they emerged in popular discourse, the key debates surrounding their use and any related trends. The Key terms cover similar issues, but in less detail, while the Definitions are short statements that encapsulate the essence of each given term.

We had long discussions in particular about the scope of organisations to include, as the sheer number of NGOs, think tanks, business groups, academic units and consultancies on CSR globally would have made it impossible to include all actors. We have confined ourselves to the following criteria: we included (1) organisations that issue a standard or a code, (2) key organisations that represent CSR regionally, and (3) a number of organisations that historically or by degree of their impact can be regarded as key players in CSR - the latter criterion admittedly reflecting the subjective assessment of the editors.

CONTRIBUTORS

What makes The A to Z of CSR distinctive, apart from its holistic and inclusive approach to CSR, is the quality of its contributors. We are fortunate to have secured the participation of most of the world ’s leading academics and practitioners on CSR. As a result, we have adopted a very ‘ light touch’ to editing their contributions, since they are, after all, among the foremost experts on their given subject areas. Some are widely known for having either introduced, popularised or defined certain terms - such as Professors Archie Carroll on CSR, Ed Freeman on stakeholder theory, Stuart Hart on poverty and the base of the pyramid model, and Richard Welford on environmental management. Others are individuals who have had an enormous influence on the implementation of CSR - such as John Elkington on corporate sustainability, Mary Robinson on human rights, and Judge Mervyn King on corporate governance. With contributors based on all five continents The A to Z also aspires at representing the global debate on CSR rather than just a narrow Anglo-American viewpoint.

Many contributors are leaders of organisations that are doing tremendous work related to CSR - such as Björn Stigson of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, David Nussbaum formerly of Transparency International and Valli Moosa of the World Conservation Union (IUCN). We are also delighted to have secured the participation of the heads of regional CSR organisations - such as Aron Cramer of Business for Social Responsibility (North America), Hugo Vergara of Forum Empresa (Latin America), Paul Kapelus of the African Institute for Corporate Citizenship and Richard Welford of CSR Asia. With more than 100 contributors of similarly high calibre, to whom we are most grateful for their time and effort, we are confident that The A to Z of CSR is the most authoritative international reference guide on CSR to date. Note that any terms without a specified author have been written by the editors, or extracted from the relevant organisation ’s website and referenced accordingly.

STRUCTURE

The A to Z of CSR begins with a comprehensive list of contributors, which states their relevant title and/or organisational affiliation. The body of The A to Z of CSR contains all the terms arranged in alphabetical order. And finally, several indexes allow the reader to search The A to Z of CSR in different ways. The Terms Index lists terms under the broad headings of Core Terms (which tend to be around 2000 words in length), Key Terms (between 500 and 750 words), and Definition Terms (100 to 250 words). The Categories Index lists terms under the following headings: CSR Terms, Regional Perspectives on CSR, Sectoral Perspectives on CSR, CSR Codes, and CSR Organisations. And the Authors Index lists terms by author, since many contributors have written multiple entries. Each term is also cross-referenced to related terms in the encyclopaedia, so that readers can obtain diverse perspectives and build up a fuller picture of the subject of their interest.

It is important to note that the content of The A to Z of CSR represents the views of the individual authors as they relate to each term, rather than those of the editors. Hence, each term credits its author or other relevant source (some organisational definitions are taken from their websites). As acting editors we were concerned, on the one hand, to ensure that all terms are represented in an accurate and, as much as possible, balanced way. On the other hand, CSR as an emerging field of practice and thought is rather dynamic. We therefore felt it appropriate to apply a rather light editorial touch on shaping the contents, in order to keep the character of this volume as a representation of the ongoing discourse in a contested area of business practice and theory. We trust that you will find The A to Z of CSR a useful reference guide in your work and welcome any comments or feedback you might have.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Dr Wayne Visser is Research Director at the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry and is responsible for spearheading a programme of research into sustainability leadership, learning and change. He is the author of four books, including three on the social, environmental and ethical responsibilities of business, one of which was also made into a leadership training video, as well as numerous articles and conference papers. He has lectured on corporate responsibility and sustainability at universities in Finland (Turku), South Africa (Cape Town, Rhodes and Stellenbosch) and the UK (Cambridge, Cardiff and Nottingham), including teaching a module on CSR in Developing Countries. Prior to joining Cambridge Programme for Industry, Wayne was Director of Sustainability Services for KPMG and Strategy Analyst for CAP Gemini in South Africa.

Professor Dirk Matten holds the Hewlett-Packard Chair in Corporate Social Responsibility and is a Professor of Policy at the Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto. Until 2006, he had a chair in business ethics and was director of a research centre on sustainability issues at the Royal Holloway College of the University of London, UK. He has 12 books and edited collections and more than 150 journal articles, book chapters and conference papers to his name. Professor Matten has taught and undertaken research at academic institutions in Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy and the US. His work has won numerous international awards, most recently the ‘ Max Weber Textbook Award’ of the Institut der Deutschen Wirtschaft, awarded by Germany’s deputy chancellor Franz Müntefering in November 2006 in Berlin.

Professor Manfred Pohl is the founder and CEO of the Institute for Corporate Culture Affairs (ICCA). Born in Bliesransbach, Germany, in 1944, he received his PhD in History from the University of Saarbrücken, Germany, in 1972. Since 1992 he has been an Honorary Professor at the University of Frankfurt. He is currently the Deputy Chairman of the European Association for Banking History e.V and of Konvent f ür Deutschland e.V. In October 2001 he received the European Award for Culture at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. From June 2002 Manfred Pohl was head of the Corporate Cultural Affairs department at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, responsible for all cultural activities as well as charitable donations and sponsoring within Deutsche Bank globally before retiring in May 2007.

Nick Tolhurst is Managing Director of the Institute for Corporate Culture Affairs (ICCA) which he joined in April 2004. Before joining ICCA, Nick Tolhurst worked for the British Foreign Ministry in Germany, advising British companies in Germany and German companies investing in the UK. Previously, Nick Tolhurst worked for the European Commission at DG II (Economics and Financial Affairs) preparing for the introduction of the Euro in differing cultures and economic systems. Nick Tolhurst studied at London Metropolitan University (UK) and completed a Masters’ Degree at Osnabrück University (Germany) both in European Studies specialising in Economics and Cultural Studies. His thesis dissertation was on the role of differing cultural and economic contexts with regard to the European Monetary Union process. Nick Tolhurst has written and edited publications on CSR, Corporate Culture and Economics including, most recently, The ICCA Handbook on Corporate Social Responsibility.

OTHER MEMBERS OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Katja Böhmer has been Project Manager at ICCA since 2004. She is editor of ICCA’s CSR Globe - global database and communication platform for companies’ CSR activities and is responsible for content management in ICCA’s communications. Katja Böhmer studied international business at the accadis Bad Homburg Academy in Germany and at Northumbria University, Newcastle in the United Kingdom.

Aron Ghebremariam has been CSR project advisor at ICCA since 2005. Aron Ghebremariam received his MBA from the University of Natal in South Africa after obtaining his first degree at Asmara University in Eritrea where he also worked for two years as part of the academic staff. He is currently completing his on PhD at Frankfurt University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, focusing on Corporate Social Responsibility and business strategy.

Judith Hennigfeld is a Senior Advisor focusing on social and environmental sustainability issues in the area of international relations, a field in which she has worked for more than ten years in total. Her clients have included the United Nations, the European Commission and the German Technical Cooperation. From 2004 until the end of 2006 she was the Managing Director of the Institute for Corporate Culture Affairs (ICCA). Previously she served for more than four years on the UN Development Programme in New York, where she was Programme Officer in the Bureau for Development Policy. From 1991 to 1993 Ms. Hennigfeld was a Fulbright scholar, graduating with an MSW from Hunter College, School of Social Work at the City University of New York. Judith Hennigfeld is co -editor of The ICCA Handbook on Corporate Social Responsibility, published in 2006 by Wiley.

Sandra Silvia Huble holds a degree in business administration from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. In 1992, Sandra Huble joined Deutsche Bank working in both the Private Wealth Management and Corporate Social Responsibility Departments. Between 2003 and 2005 she was Managing Director of the Konvent für Deutschland in Berlin.

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

Charles Ainger, RAE Visiting Professor of Engineering for Sustainable Development, University of Cambridge

Jane Batten, Business Support Team Manager, University of Cambridge Programme for Industry

Jem Bendell, Adjunct Professor, Griffith University Business School and Director, Lifeworth

David Birch, Professor of Communication and former Director of the Corporate Citizenship Unit, Deakin University

Mick Blowfield, Senior Research Fellow at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, Oxford University

Jenny Cargill, Founder and CEO, BusinessMap

Archie Carroll, Director, Nonprofit Management & Community Service Program & Robert W. Scherer Professor Emeritus, University of Georgia

Jonathan Cohen, Principal, Stakeholder Consulting and author, Business-Watch blog

Rebecca Collins, PhD candidate, University of Cambridge

Susan Côté-Freeman, Programme Director, Transparency International Ltd

Polly Courtice, Director, University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership

Aron Cramer, President and CEO, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR)

Andrew Crane, George R. Gardiner Professor of Business Ethics, Schulich School of Business, York University

Bruce Davidson, Partner, ERM

Theo de Bruijn, Senior Researcher, University of Twente and Associate Professor of Sustainable Development, Saxion Universities for Applied Sciences

Duncan Duke, Co-Director of the BoP Protocol Project and Senior Research Associate, Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise, Columbia University

Dermot Egan, Director, Hub World

John Elkington, Founding Partner & Director of Volans and Co-founder of SustainAbility

Ruth Findlay-Brooks, Development Director, University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership

R. Edward Freeman, Elis and Signe Olsson Professor of Business Administration and Academic Director, Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics, The Darden School, University of Virginia

Aron Ghebremariam, PhD candidate, Frankfurt University

Kate Grosser, PhD candidate, International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility, Nottingham University

Lars H. Gulbrandsen, Senior Research Fellow, the Fridtjof Nansen Institute

Stirling Habbitts, Vice President, Structured Finance Emissions Products, ING Bank

David Halley, Head of International Partnerships, Business in the Community (BITC)

Stuart Hart, S.C. Johnson Chair of Sustainable Global Enterprise and Professor of Management, Johnson School of Management, Cornell University

Axel Haunschild, Professor of Work, Employment and Organisation, University of Trier

Andreas Hermann, Deputy Head of Division: Environmental Law & Governance, Öko-Institut

Colin Higgins, Lecturer, Business and Law Faculty, Victoria University, Australia

Kai Hockerts, Associate Professor, Copenhagen Business School

Kara Hartnett Hurst, Managing Director, East Coast, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR)

Jennifer Iansen-Rogers, Senior Manager, KPMG Global Sustainability Services

Paula Ivey, President, The CSR Group

Matt Jeschke, Former Director, Energy and Extractives Team, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR)

Aled Jones, Deputy Director, Climate Leadership Programme, University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership

Paul Kapelus, Director of Synergy Global and Founder Director, African Institute for Corporate Citizenship

Judge Mervyn King, Chairman, King Committee on Corporate Governance in South Africa

Debbie Kobak, Manager National Institutional Banking/AVP, ShoreBank

Philip Kotler, S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University

Oliver Laasch, Professor at the Business School of the Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM)

Peter Lacy, Executive Director, European Academy of Business in Society

Harriet Lamb, CBE, Executive Director, Fairtrade Foundation

Melissa Lane, Professor of Politics, Princeton University

Kelly Lavelle, Co-Director, Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change

Zoe Lees, Associate Director, KPMG Sustainability Services

Margaret Legum, Late board member of the South African New Economics Foundation

Deborah Leipziger, Senior Consultant, Maplecroft

Klaus Leisinger, President and CEO, Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development

Mark Line, Executive Chairman, Two Tomorrows Group

L. Hunter Lovins, President and Founder, Natural Capitalism Inc.

John Luff, Founder, SustainableMarketing

Steve Lydenberg, Chief Investment Officer, Domini Social Investments and Vice President, Domini Funds

Antoine Mach, Owner, Covalence

Daniel Malan, Special Advisor on Ethics and Governance, KPMG and Senior Lecturer, University of Stellenbosch Business School

Petrus Marais, Director: Advisory Executive, KPMG Services

Dirk Matten, Professor of Strategy and Hewlett-Packard Chair in Corporate Social Responsibility, Schulich School of Business, York University

Malcolm McIntosh, Director, Asia Pacific Centre for Sustainable Enterprise, Griffith Business School

Mark B. Milstein, Director, Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise, Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University

Anupama Mohan, CR and Sustainability Consultant

George Molenkamp, Sustainability Advisory Board, KPMG

Johann Möller, Management System Auditing, Ferret Mining & Environmental Services

Valli Moosa, President of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), and former Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, South Africa

David F. Murphy, United Nations System Staff College

Judy Muthuri, Lecturer in Corporate Social Responsibility, International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (ICCSR), Nottingham University Business School

Jane Nelson, Director, Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Karsten Neuhoff, Senior Research Associate, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge

Jan Noterdaeme, Senior Advisor on Strategy, EU and Stakeholder Relations, CSR Europe

David Nussbaum, Former Chief Executive, Transparency International; Chief Executive, WWF

David Owen, Professor of Social and Environmental Accounting, University of Nottingham

John Owen, Corporate Secretary, International Accreditation Forum

Bidhan Parmar, Lecturer in Business Administration, The Darden School, University of Virginia

Ken Peattie, Professor of Marketing and Strategy and Director of the ESRC Centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society (BRASS), Cardiff University

Mike Pierce, Deputy Director, University of Cambridge Programme for Industry

Manfred Pohl, Co-Founder of the Institute for Corporate Culture Affairs and former Head of CSR at Deutsche Bank

Chris Pomfret, UK Food Standards Agency Board Member

Jonathon Porritt, Founder Director of Forum for the Future

Scott J. Reynolds, Associate Professor and Helen Moore Gerhardt Faculty Fellow, University of Washington Business School

Klaus Richter, Module Manager, Corporate Ethics and Corporate Governance, AutoUni, Volkswagen Group

Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Dick Robson, Former Director Sustainable Development and Responsible Care at European Chemical Industry Council

Catherine Rubbens, CSR consultant and former Director Products and Services, CSR Europe

John Sabapathy, Editor, AccountAbility Forum

Andreas Georg Scherer, Director, Institute of Organization and Administrative Science, University of Zurich

Katharina Schmitt, Researcher, Environmental Law and Governance, Öko-Institut e.V.

Jan Aart Scholte, Professor in PAIS and Professorial Research Fellow in the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation (CSGR), University of Warwick

Maria Sillanpää, Founding Director, Sustainability Advisory Group

Erik Simanis, Co-Director of the BoP Protocol Project, Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise, Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University

Timothy Smith, Director of Socially Responsive Investing and Senior Vice President at Walden Asset Management

Telita Snyckers, Senior Manager, South African Revenue Service

Laura J. Spence, Director, Centre for Research into Sustainability

Björn Stigson, President, World Business Council for Sustainable Development

Satish Sule, Director General Competition, European Commission Bruxelles.

John E. Tedstrom, Executive Director, Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS

Nick Tolhurst, Managing Director, Institute for Corporate Culture Affairs

Hugo Vergara, Managing Director at BSD Consulting Group Chile and Former General Manager, Forum EMPRESA

Wayne Visser, CEO, CSR International and Senior Associate, University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership

Sheila von Rimscha, Programme Manager, University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership

Penny Walker, Management Consultant and Author

Nicki Websper, Director, Forsyth Websper and Associate Marketing Director, Two Tomorrows

Richard Welford, Co-Founder and Chairman, CSR Asia

Peter Wilkinson, Partner at Peter Wilkinson Associates and Senior Advisor to Transparency International

Emma Wilson, Senior Researcher, International Institute for Environment and Development

Franziska Wolff, Researcher, Environmental Law & Governance, Öko-Institut

Donna Wood, David W. Wilson Chair of Business Ethics, University of Northern Iowa

Jon Woodhead, Group Services Director, Two Tomorrows Group

Stephen B. Young, Global Executive Director, Caux Round Table

Betsy Zeidman, Director of the Center for Emerging Domestic Markets (CEDM) and a Research Fellow at the Milken Institute

THE A TO Z

3 Rs

→ Recycling, Waste management

AA 1000 SERIES OF STANDARDS ON ACCOUNTABILITY

→ Accountability

www.accountability21.net

The AA 1000 Series are principles-based standards offering a non-proprietary, open-source series of standards applicable to all organisations, covering the full range of an organisation’s → sustainability performance and → reporting. The AA 1000 Series is comprised of:

• AA 1000 Purpose and Principles

• AA 1000 Framework for Integration

• AA 1000 Assurance Standard

• AA 1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard

In 1999 the London-based AccountAbility published the first document in the series, the AA 1000 Framework. This included sections on purpose and principles, framework for integration, → assurance and → stakeholder engagement. After its publication the decision was made to publish revisions of these sections as individual standards. These four standards now make up the AA 1000 Series. As each standard in the Series is published, it replaces the information in the original Framework on that topic. When all four standards have been developed, the Framework will be withdrawn.

AA 1000 Framework - the AA 1000 Framework was developed to help organisations build their → social responsibility and → accountability through high quality accounting, → auditing and reporting. It is driven by inclusivity and requires organisations to integrate stakeholder engagement processes into their core management activities.

The Framework provides guidance on how to establish a systematic stakeholder engagement process that generates the indicators, targets, and reporting systems needed to ensure greater → transparency, effective responsiveness to → stakeholders and improved overall organisational performance.

AA 1000 Assurance Standard (AA 1000AS) - following an extensive international consultation process and drawing on the practical experience and perspectives of the business, public and civil society sectors, the AA 1000AS was launched in 2003. It is the first assurance standard that covers the full range of an organisation’s sustainability performance. It has been designed to complement the → Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Reporting Guidelines and other standardised approaches.

The standard addresses the need for an approach that effectively deals with the qualitative as well as quantitative data that reflects sustainability performance together with the systems and competencies that underpin reported data and organisational performance.

The AA 1000AS is based on assessment of reports against three principles:

• Materiality - does the sustainability report provide an account covering all the areas of performance that stakeholders need to judge the organisation ’s sustainability performance?

• Completeness - is the information complete and accurate enough to assess and understand the organisation’s performance in all these areas?

• Responsiveness - has the organisation responded coherently and consistently to stakeholders’ concerns and interests?

In addition to the above principles, AA 1000AS covers the essential elements of a public assurance statement, and the independence, impartiality and competency requirements for assurance providers.

AA 1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard (AA 1000SES) - the stakeholder engagement standard, launched in 2003 as an exposure draft, is a generally applicable framework for improving the quality of the design, implementation, assessment, communication and assurance of stakeholder engagement. It is based on the same three principles as AA 1000AS.

The AA 1000SES is applicable to the full range of engagements, including functional (e.g. customer care), issue-based (e.g. → human rights), and organisation-wide engagements (e.g. reporting and assurance).

The AA 1000SES is designed for all those initiating, participating in, observing, assessing, assuring or otherwise communicating about stakeholder engagement. It aims to enable, among other things:

• Organisations to design and implement stakeholder engagement in accordance with clear principles and criteria and inform stakeholders of their approach.

• Stakeholders to identify, assess and comment on the quality of an engagement using clear principles and associated criteria.

• Assurance practitioners to assess and comment on the quality of stakeholder engagement, both in its own right and as a means of assessing an organisation ’s determination of what is material, how it manages and understands material issues, and how it responds to stakeholder expectations.

The AA 1000SES complements AA 1000AS, and is also intended to complement other standards in which stakeholder engagement is an important element, such as those covering reporting, assurance and governance, as well as issue-specific standards on, for example, → labour issues, human rights and → corruption (e.g. Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, → ISO standards, → SA 8000, IAASB standards and → ISEAL member standards).

AA 1000PP Purpose and Principles - this standard addresses the need for a systematic, legitimate approach to accountability and the role for standards. It explains Account-Ability’s principles-based approach and defines the principles of inclusivity, materiality, completeness and responsiveness as they apply to the Series as a whole.

AA 1000FI Framework for Integration - this standard addresses the need for organisations to integrate their non-financial accountability practices into their core management processes. It provides guidance on systems and processes and links the AA 1000 Series to other key standards.

Maria Sillanpää

ACCESS TO MEDICINE INDEX

→ Health and safety, Pharmaceutical sector

www.atmindex.org

Preventable and treatable diseases such as → HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis continue to claim millions of lives every year. About two billion people cannot afford the drugs or vaccines that they need. Hundreds of millions are afflicted with neglected diseases for which no affordable remedies have been developed or for which treatments fail to reach patients.

According to World Health Organisation estimates, improving access to medicines could save 10 million lives each year. Governments, → non-governmental organisations and the private sector all have to play a part.

The Access to Medicine Index highlights one part of the solution: the efforts of the world’s largest → pharmaceutical companies to help solve this global crisis. The Index also encourages companies, as well as all other stakeholders, to do even more.

The Access to Medicine Index serves three major goals:

• Supply investors, governments, academics, non-governmental organisations and the general public with independent, impartial and reliable information on individual pharmaceutical companies’ efforts to improve global access to medicines;

• Provide pharmaceutical companies themselves with a transparent means by which to assess, monitor and improve their own performance and their public and investment profiles.

• Provide a platform on which all → stakeholders can continuously discuss best practices and lessons learned in the area of global access to medicines.

The Access to Medicine Index is created and maintained by the Access to Medicine Foundation, which is based in Haarlem, The Netherlands.

ACCOUNTABILITY

→ AA 1000 Series of Standards on Accountability

Accountability is a concept in ethics with several meanings, often used synonymously with such concepts as answerability, responsibility, liability and other terms associated with the expectation of account-giving. AccountAbility has defined the term as having three dimensions: first, ‘compliance’, which implies the compliance with rules, norms, regulations etc. agreed or applicable between the agent to whom certain responsibilities or power have been assigned; second, → ‘transparency’, which implies account-giving by the agent to the applicable principal(s); and third, ‘responsiveness’, which implies the agent’s willingness and ability to respond to legitimate expectations and rights of the principal(s).

As an aspect of governance, accountability, or its lack, has, especially during the last two decades, risen to be one of the central debating points in the political, civil society and corporate arenas.