Developing a growth plan for the Artisans Alliance of Jawaja (AAJ) to better understand social impact and seek an alternative narrative about the current perception of CSR

Abstract

The project has been envisioned to carry out a two-fold assessment of the term “social impact”, in light of the abuse that the term has been subject to. The project shall focus on the definition of this word from the perspective of the CSR activities of Multi National Organizations, NGOs and other organization who have claimed to work for the welfare of the people that they choose to help. However, this definition of welfare of the targeted populace often lies within the domain of activities that the organization itself has envisioned, be it issues such as water, sanitation, public health, or any other target area. With such mottos defined well in advance, the development of a selected populace is automatically biased towards those topics. It is often in the minds of those who are part of such professions to define the underprivileged as a blanket group of resourceless people, a people that must be developed in any manner that the CSR worker or volunteer deems fit. It is with such biases that the conversations around this word social impact are carried out, with a presumption of superiority, as the erstwhile colonialists had once decided in the “interests” of the people that they ruled.