The popularity of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is growing. In a country like Saudi Arabia, CSR initiatives are driven by strong socio-cultural factors which already promote CSR values. Traditionally seen as a philanthropic practice, most businesses now understand the value it adds to the bottom line. A recent study done by Informa Middle East, with over 150 CSR experts and professionals, revealed several key CSR trends in the Kingdom. These trends encapsulate the current status and the future potential of the sector in Saudi.

1. Top CSR Trends
in Saudi Arabia
A STUDY BY
Although traditionally
CSR has been seen as a
philanthropic practice,
most businesses are
now understanding
the value it adds to the
bottom line.
المسـؤولـيـة الاجتماعية لـلشـركـات – السـعـودية ٢٠١٤
SAUDI ARABIA 2014
The popularity of Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) is growing. In a country like Saudi Arabia,
CSR initiatives are driven by strong sociocultural
factors which already promote such values.
Although traditionally it has been seen as a
philanthropic practice, most businesses are now
understanding the value it adds to the bottom
line.
A recent study done by Informa Middle East,
for which in-depth interviews were conducted
with experts and over 150 professionals in the
CSR sector participated in a survey, revealed
several CSR trends in the Kingdom. These trends
encapsulate the current status and the future
potential of the sector in Saudi.
Dr. Haifa Jamal Al-Lail, President of Effat
University, said, “Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) has become increasingly important in
recent years. Demonstrating responsible business
practices to customers, employees and other key
stakeholders are now a priority, and the demand
for such organisations to achieve this is higher
than ever. The global movement of employees
has both environmental and social impacts,
but despite the increased corporate focus on
CSR, employee mobility departments are not
addressing these issues.”
Lost in Translation
The first trend that both interviewees and survey
respondents agreed upon is the ambiguity of
defining CSR, as it remains unclear to many
professionals in Saudi Arabia.
Over 60% of local professionals
confirmed that there is a vague
understanding of the concept in general,
and 70% agreed that it is commonly
confused with corporate philanthropy.
While corporate philanthropy entails no financial
benefit to the business, a well-developed
CSR strategy is meant to feed back into the
company’s bottom line.
Another major difference between the two
concepts is evident where CSR has to be
incorporated into the overall business strategy.
In philanthropic practice, the charity function
does not have to be aligned with the overall
company’s objectives. For instance, any company
can contribute to building a mosque, which is
quite common across the Kingdom. On the other
hand, a CSR strategy for a construction company
would involve creating awareness among the
employees, using environmentally friendly
building materials, and assigning shorter hours to
the workers.
© Informa Middle East. All rights reserved www.csrsummitsaudi.com/report 1

2. Up to 60% of CSR
professionals indicated
that there is a low level
of awareness among
senior management
“Education is one of
the most important
areas since it reflects
back on youth,
entrepreneurship,
societyand business.
It almost affects all
aspects of life. If a
society owns a proper
well established
education system, it will
rise and flourish in all
aspects”
This lingering confusion is perhaps a result
of the fact that the return on investment of
CSR initiatives tend to generate long term
results. Some of these long term benefits
include attracting a wider base of customers,
reducing costs through waste reduction and
energy conservation, and attracting potential
stakeholders.
In addition to this lack of understanding, up
to 60% of CSR professionals indicated that
there is a low level of awareness among senior
management. This can be detrimental to
implementing CSR because the key to having
a successful CSR strategy is by engaging the
organisations’ decision markers.
However, some companies seem to be getting
past these challenges. Dipankar Gosh, Regional
Partner for Clean Energy and Sustainability
Services at Ernst & Young, said, “For years, CSR
in Saudi Arabia has been focused primarily
on corporate philanthropy and community
engagement. Today, this is still largely the case
across many of the companies in the country.
However, some organisations, following global
international benchmarks, are introducing
a strategic approach to CSR and focusing
on addressing the social and economic
challenges. CSR is now increasingly being
viewed as a tool to enhance competiveness
– this would eventually contribute to Saudi
Arabia’s future national development.”
Top Challenges Facing CSR
Professionals in Saudi
Defining CSR
CSR commonly
seen as corporate
philanthropy
70%
Believe that senior management has
a low level of awareness about CSR
60%
60%
Development & Diversity
Two more areas that are critical for sustainable
development have been identified by our
research to be youth development and gender.
The former garnered a lot of votes with over
87% for education and 46% for youth. This has
been a concern due to several reasons.
87%
Education
Top Focus Areas
46%
49%
21%
Development
Youth
Employment
Gender
Diversity
“Education is one of the most important
areas since it reflects back on youth,
entrepreneurship, society, business…etc. It
almost affects all aspects of life. If a society
owns a proper well established education
system, it will rise and flourish in all aspects,” Dr.
Jamal Al-Lail said.
Many of our experts shared the same view
regarding this issue. Dr. Murya Habbash from
King Khalid University, said.
“Youth development is a top priority
and that includes training and
education so we can bring up a
generation that embeds the culture of
giving and sharing”
This rapidly growing young population has
very limited extra-curricular activities to
engage in. Improving education and youth
development will help create a valuable asset
which, if left unchecked, will add burden to
unemployment in the near future.
The phenomenon of the youth bulge
where a large share of the population
is comprised of children and young
adults indicates that up to 50% of the
Kingdom’s population is under the age
of 25
Alan Diaz, Senior Vice President for Europe,
Asia, Middle East and Africa at Laureate
Education, said, “The only way forward is
around employability. The biggest challenges
that we have in the MENA region is around
how kids are not yet workforce ready … Our
experience in Saudi Arabia has been exactly
about that where the government has realised
and fostered the idea that on the one hand
Saudisation is a good thing - and it certainly is -
but on the other hand the resources to provide
the requisite level of skills for Saudisation are
not there. That’s where we step in to help the
government [in higher education] to achieve
the outcome of employability that were not
created in high schools or the systems that
existed before,” he added.
© Informa Middle East. All rights reserved www.csrsummitsaudi.com/report 2

3. “Improving education
and youth development
will help create a
valuable asset which,
if left unchecked,
will add burden to
unemployment in the
near future”
“The connection
between CSR and
engaged employees
continues to grow; the
more the institution
actively pursues worthy
environmental and
social efforts, the more
engaged its employees
are”
Over 20% of the survey respondents believe
that gender diversity is key for national
sustainable development and many CSR
experts echoed the same opinion in individual
interviews. Both gender diversity and youth
development play a crucial role in determining
national employment trends.
Gosh said, “There is a focus on diversity &
human rights: minimising gender bias and
advancing the equal opportunities agenda
across the Kingdom.”
Nael Fayez, Chief Executive Officer at Saudi
Enjaz Program, agrees with Gosh on this point.
“It is my belief that - with the changing Saudi
economy, which is highly demonstrated
by the Saudi economy joining the G20
and the high unemployment issue – the
community services and contribution from
corporates working in the Kingdom should
be directed mainly towards preparing the
next generation of entries to the job market,
therefore an investment should be focused
to gender equalities and providing females
with equal developmental opportunities and
for preparing Saudi youth in general in work
readiness focus programs,” he said.
“Community services and contribution
from corporates working in the
Kingdom should be directed mainly
towards preparing the next generation
of entries to the job market, therefore
an investment should be focused
to gender equalities and providing
females with equal developmental
opportunities and for preparing Saudi
youth in general in work readiness
focus programs”
Promoting CSR Initiatives
Another trend that was highlighted by our
experts’ insights and survey results is that
many companies in Saudi Arabia are facing
challenges when it comes to promoting their
CSR programmes. Essentially, marketing of CSR
initiatives should include six main elements.
a) Engaging and educating internal
stakeholder should take centre stage. Dr.
Jamal Al-Lail confirms this. She said, “The
connection between CSR and engaged
employees continues to grow; the more
the institution actively pursues worthy
environmental and social efforts, the more
engaged its employees are.”
b) Once involved, the organisation’s staff
will need to contribute and share the
company story through various channels
under the umbrella of the brand,
engaging the target audience.
c) The marketing campaign should also
include credible messages by backing up
statements with appropriate facts and
figures.
d) Communication should occur through
a series of relevant messages in order to
keep the theme of the initiative aligned
with the overall objectives.
e) Seek the endorsement of key influencers
and opinion leaders in the social space.
f) Finally, measuring the KPI’s and ROI’s in
every step throughout your CSR journey.
This will enable you to test different
methods and initiatives based on the
response.
Should CSR be mandatory?
While building the case for CSR still needs a
push, none of the experts that we interviewed
agreed with the idea of making it mandatory
by the government. Not only was this the case
for experts in Saudi, the same opinion was
echoed by CSR professionals across the GCC.
While building the case for CSR still
needs a push, none of the experts
that we interviewed agreed with
the idea of making it mandatory by
the government. Not only was this
the case for experts in Saudi, the
same opinion was echoed by CSR
professionals across the GCC.
Gosh said, “CSR and sustainable development
initiatives require a great deal of innovative
thinking and consideration of strategic issues
that an organisation can leverage on to drive
growth. A mandatory CSR approach risks to
drive solely compliance-based initiatives,
where organisations simply tick the boxes
without any genuine effort; programmes,
which actually benefit the organisation and
the society, may be ignored. Instead, the
government would need to focus on creating
the right environment in Saudi Arabia – to
pave the way for the right engagements
& partnerships, to be proactive in the way
it approaches business with regards to
sustainability, and to help create the conditions
for corporate initiatives to be aligned with the
country’s broader development goals.”
© Informa Middle East. All rights reserved www.csrsummitsaudi.com/report 3

4. Bonus: The top success factors of a sustainability
framework
When asked about the top success factors of CSR in Saudi Arabia, our expert interviewees
answered with the following:
› Stakeholder engagement:
 Internally: to build understanding and support
 Externally: to gain opinion and perspective which in turn would help develop the
framework further
› Setting metrics in place: a sustainability framework needs to be time-specific and to define
performance measurement mechanisms and KPI’s
› Leveraging existing strengths within the business for social impact. An example of this
would be DHL using their logistic know-how to improve delivery of aid to disaster areas
Conclusion
Even though CSR professionals in Saudi Arabia are currently facing some challenges, these
trends demonstrate a strong desire to overcome the difficulties for the sake of building a
more sustainable future.
CSR in Saudi Arabia:
Trends & Developments
CSR IN SAUDI ARABIA - THE FACTS!
TOP 3 AREAS CRITICAL FOR
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPEMENT
87%
Education
49%
Employment
46%
Youth
CSR IMPACT ON CLIENTS
Saudi organisations are actively engaged in CSR
74% attract and engage
their clients through CSR
89%
agree that sustainability led
organisations drive more
customers
CSR IMPACT ON BUSINESSES
COMPANIES
78%
66%
have integrated CSR strategies
CEOʻS INVOLVEMENT IN CSR
75% of CSR professionals
improved bottom line
73% of CSR professionals
improved overall business performance
and operation
CSR IMPACT ON ENGAGEMENT
89% of CSR professionals agree
that sustainability performance
is very important for corporate
success
CSR and sustainability experts across the Kingdom will be discussing
these trends and more at CSR Saudi Arabia Summit from 24-26
November CSR IMPACT 2014.
ON THE COMMUNITY
For more information, visit www.csrsummitsaudi.com
of companies Social ROI
© Informa Middle East. All rights reserved www.csrsummitsaudi.com/report 4
of companies
of companies
staff turnover
28%
not involved
72%
involved
“CSR is
commonly seen
as corporate
philanthropy” -
70% agree
53% of CSR professionals
find building a business case for CSR
initiatives a challenge
70% improved stakeholder engagement
75% engages with their employees
47% find collaborating and engaging
with NGOs a challenge
60%
of organisations
foster innovation
through CSR
S audi on regional CSR
40% of Saudi CSR
professionals believe
regional organisations
are actively adopting
CSR into their
businesses, while
38% disagree
75% of organisations have an improved impact
on local community development
CSR IN 2014 VS 2013
operating outcomes
55%
54%
40%
Download our CSR Saudi infographics
Visit www.csrsummitsaudi.com/infographic

5. المسـؤولـيـة الاجتماعية لـلشـركـات – السـعـودية ٢٠١٤
SAUDI ARABIA 2014
#CSRSummitKSA
HEADLINE SPONSOR PLATINUM SPONSORS Gold Sponsor
ETCHNOLOGY SPONSOR BRONZE SPONSOR Official PR Partner
Media Partners
POWDEER BY Organised by
www.csrpulse.com
Delegate Chair and
Lunch Sponsor
© Informa Middle East. All rights reserved www.csrsummitsaudi.com/report 5