Abstract
Many business organisations face the challenge of determining the success or failure of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, particularly with respect to the impacts and effect on community development and corporate-community relations. Indeed, this can be partly attributed to the fact that CSR as a discipline lacks a well-developed and elaborate methodology to measure, capture and report its impact. Yet, a business case and justification for continued support for CSR initiatives requires at a minimum, some evidence that demonstrates the return on corporate social Investment for both the company and its external stakeholders. The limited nature of such available evidence has meant that the debate over the relationship between CSR and development in the Niger Delta remains contested, and the policy challenge confronting community relations managers, remains poorly understood. This paper seeks to address the gaps in knowledge by examining the SPDC Community Transformation and Development Index (SCOTDI) launched in 2013. SCOTDI represents an innovative effort to systematically integrate and adapt a number of international standards into a composite index to assess, rank and recognised the performance and development outcomes of SPDC's Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) with its host communities. The model provides a means for assessing the extent to which GMoUs are able to contribute to community development, provides an incentive for positive inter-cluster competition, thus ensuring their long–term sustainability, and facilitating the effective and efficient allocation of scare resources for community development.
