1. The Africa Sustainability Barometer
Benchmarking sustainable business to drive the continent’s long-term development
Summary:
This Is Africa, part of the Financial Times Limited, in partnership with the United Nations Global Compact, is
producing the Africa Sustainability Barometer. This comprehensive, region-wide assessment of sustainable business
practice – covering international companies with operations in the region, as well as local and regional companies
– provides the first benchmark for the state of sustainability on the continent.
The annualised Barometer will act as a source of information on the changing role of business in development, and
will constitute a practical tool for development practitioners, investors, governments and businesses.
Purpose and application:
While partnership between the global development community and business has advanced significantly since 2000
there remains a strong need for further and accelerated progress in understanding exactly how the capacity and
expertise of business (from financing to innovation and technology) can be most effectively leveraged to drive
progress on the MDGs and any goals that will succeed them in 2015.
Nowhere is the need for action in this regard greater than in sub-Saharan Africa, a region that continues to face
the most severe development challenges globally.
Through new research, the Barometer's primary purpose is to act as a practical tool for:
· Development Practitioners: By demonstrating that the long term commercial success of businesses can coincide
with development needs (particularly in frontier and emerging markets), development actors can enhance their
ability to engage with a growing contingent of international and local company’s reshaping Africa’s economic
fortunes.
· Business: The Barometer will allow companies to identify gaps in their sustainability performance, in turn
encouraging them to strengthen their development impact.

2. It may also act as an incentive for companies not currently actively engaged in sustainable business practice by
identifying and highlighting businesses that are successfully combining commercial success with development
impact.
· Investors: As Africa attracts more foreign investment, factors such as compliance with international rules on
corruption, best practice and sustainability are becoming more important elements in decision-making. The
Barometer will allow prospective investors to identify companies and opportunities that are likely to yield healthy
returns while also contributing to development progress by adhering to internationally recognized norms of
responsible and sustainable business.
· Government: Help identify areas in need of policy reform to facilitate more investment, while strengthening
governments’ ability to effectively harness the potential of the private sector.
Structure Overview:
The Barometer will track a broad spectrum of companies – including local firms and multinationals with operations
in Africa – across sectors. Using a series of indicators it will produce metrics and ratios - accounting for company
size and sector to allow for fair comparison - which, in aggregate, provide an overview of sustainable business
practice across the continent.
The indicators can be grouped into three main categories:
● Core business practice
● Social investments and philanthropy
● Advocacy
Communications Strategy and Timeline:
With exclusive access to leading decision-makers, This Is Africa will produce a print report presenting the
Barometer’s main findings, as well as in-depth analysis of the key trends shaping the global business sustainability
landscape.
This will run parallel to sustained coverage on This Is Africa’s website, including video interviews, blogs, social
media and interactive data features. This content will also be syndicated across some of This Is Africa’s media
partners, including Business Fights Poverty and the Skoll World Forum.
Additional awareness will be generated through a dedicated PR campaign targeting African and other international
media.
Events:
The report and Barometer will launch during the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in New York in September.
Secondly, it will have distribution at PRI in Person in October

3. September 18–19, 2013: UN Global Compact Leaders Summit:
o As part of UN General Assembly week, the platform will allow direct communication with a high level
audience representing the public and private sectors. With CEO-level participation from many of the
world’s leading businesses, this event will ensure strong visibility. It will also include the direct
participation of the UN Secretary General. http://www.leaderssummit2013.org/about-ungc
October 1-2 – PRI in Person: The United Nations-backed Principles for Responsible Investment Initiative event of
the year in Cape Town, South Africa. http://www.unpri.org/events/pri-in-person-cape-town/
Sustainability Barometer : Advisory Council
Role and Expectations
The council is an advisory panel consisting of individuals from various institutions and corporations with the
relevant expertise in sustainability in Africa. The council is convened to help refine the construct of the barometer
and assist in developing the underlying methodology.
The council composition is varied, bringing together individuals from large businesses to academia, to ensure that
multiple perspectives are accounted for and ingrained in the barometer.
The role of the council is to provide guidance and feedback on the development of the barometer and specifically
issues around the development of sector-specific indicators, focus on issues that are unique or particularly relevant
to Africa, provide insight into the challenges faced by companies in integrating sustainability into their business
and a view of the legal and administrative nuances of the policy climate in various countries in Africa that enable or
hinder sustainable development.
The council members are expected to connect with the research team in a series of consultations, and assess and
provide input as they see fit.
There will be four official calls scheduled at the earliest (once every month up till the launch of the Barometer in
late September 2013). The tentative dates are as follows:
● 30th & 31st May, 2013
● 11th & 12th July, 2013
● 23rd & 24th August, 2013
The council’s interaction with the team is not limited to the scheduled consultations. The interaction is largely
flexible and the level of involvement is largely dependant on the individual council member.

4. Funding partnership:
Required funding
The cost needed to run the full initiative during a year is 35,000 GBP. Outlined below are some of the
communications activities we expect to deliver in the year.
The Concept:
This will be a high level communications initiative delivering a programme of activity over the course of a year
involving key partners and engaging regularly with important stakeholders. The year long initiative will feature in-
depth analysis, new research and high level commentary across print, digital and social media platforms. There
will also be distribution and involvement in high level events such as those mentioned above.
A dedicated PR campaign leveraging existing networks will ensure sustained visibility and awareness of the
initiative.
Audience and stakeholder engagement
The initiative will allow funding partners to take up a strong position regarding their association with business
sustainability in Africa and to convey this message to an audience reached by This is Africa. The various groups
that will be targeted include:
● multilateral organisations and agencies
● African and international governments
● NGOs and civil society
● global institutional investors
● African and international businesses
● major sources of investment funding into Africa such as private equity, DFIs and IFIs, African diaspora
and entrepreneurs
● banks and intermediaries
Proposed media activity during the initiative
Print:
Written print report - 32 pages in length - the Africa Sustainability Barometer will be the first of its kind and
introduce a credible benchmark for sustainable business performance in Africa together with commentary and
analysis and high level contributions. This will be produced in time for the intended launch in June/July 2013. It
will include:

5. ● Foreword/Introduction
● High level opinion pieces/contributions
● Feature articles
● Data/research findings and infographics
● Case studies/photo essay
This is Africa will be responsible for content produced in the written report but there will be an initial planning
meeting with all key partners to discuss overall themes/topics and possible contributors. The report will be
distributed with This is Africa to a global audience of 25,000 together with additional client copies.
Digital:
The project will include a resource page at www.thisisafricaonline.com; similar to the recent Access+ initiative
available on the site. The page will contain all of the content of the written report together with additional
contributions, video interviews and access to interactive data.
The site will remain ‘live’ permanently and we will renew the initiative one year on with new data/research and
findings from the previous year.
Social Media:
The project will also include use of social media as a means of drawing attention to the project. A Twitter handle
will be created and used in conjunction with print, online media and any physical events associated with the
initiative. Overtime, a Facebook page could also be established.
PR:
There will also be a one off PR campaign to promote the launch through our own/FT media networks
internationally and in Africa.
With the exception of the written report, all other activity will be ongoing during the year and can include updated
interviews and contributions to the site. This is an ideal opportunity for our funding partners to update our
audience with senior executives responses to successful developments and announcements. The FT has an
excellent studio facility that will be used in most cased for interviews but we can also accommodate Skype where it
is necessary to do so.
Marketing:
As an important initiative of This is Africa we would also suggest a marketing element. However, we are sensitive
to how our funding partners would view this and any activity would only take place after consultation and the
approval of our partners.
For further details please contact Amina Aziz on +44 207 873 4736 or via email amina.aziz@ft.com