NUML and Mishal to Jointly Establish and Strengthen the National Academy for Corporate Social Responsibility in Pakistan.

NUML and Mishal to Jointly Establish and Strengthen the National Academy for Corporate Social Responsibility in Pakistan. 

The National University of Modern Languages (NUML) and Mishal Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding to establish and strengthen the National Academy for Corporate Social Responsibility in Pakistan. The understanding formally establishes a new strategic partnership enabling the organizations to create a unique model in Pakistan for private businesses to play their role as responsible enterprises, working to improve the human security and dignity through knowledge empowerment and information management. 

NUML and Mishal envision making knowledge and credibility as primary resources for decision making for stakeholders including the policy makers, businesses and the information consumers. Speaking on the occasion, Amna Sabahat, Program Manager Mishal, said, "this partnership will formulate a new linkages of ideas and policy network based on the Triple Helix model." She further said that the partnership will set a new enabling environment for innovation while exploring new avenues for responsible business practices in the country.

The Memorandum of Understanding signed by NUML and Mishal will be a pivot in Pakistan's Industry-academia linkages, particularly in the media sector. It will define new value systems on how to create value for the stakeholders, while doing business in a  more responsible, sustainable and profitable manner.

Mishal’s foremost domain of activity is strategic communication with a spotlight on media development, behaviour change communication, perception management and future scenario predictions using methodologies and resources that service the lifestyle and social needs of individuals, their families, the communities they live in and ultimately their larger domains.

Amir Jahangir, Chief Executive Officer of Mishal Pakistan said, “Our research and media development initiatives have built the capacity of thousands of journalists and media professionals across Pakistan in the last twelve years”. He further said, “Under our creating shared values initiatives, Mishal is now establishing a new partnership to create and strengthen Pakistan's first National Academy for Corporate \social Responsibility (NACSR). Jahangir said, "We believe, working closely with the leading research and academic institutions will develop interventions to improve the human capital and industry standards through knowledge-based initiatives”.

Established in 2003, Mishal has been engaged with some of the most dynamic organizations, including media enterprises and global development agencies helping them develop their communication strategies and solutions for better understanding and creating synergies with their concerned stakeholders. Mishal is the country partner institute of the Center for Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network of the World Economic Forum. Mishal’s research and capacity building initiatives have assisted and helped successive governments to improve Pakistan’s global ranking on competitiveness, gender gap, trade and information technology indices.

The National University of Modern Languages was established as an institute in 1970 to help people communicate and understand each other in different oriental and occidental languages, to assimilate different cultures and to act as springboard for emerging disciplines. Initially, the institute provided language training facilities to personnel of armed forces and other government services of Pakistan. It was upgraded to University on May 29, 2000. In achieving this benchmark of a fully autonomous University, it has crossed many barriers and achieved a status of a seat of learning contributing new knowledge in local and global perspective and now teaches 27 oriental and occidental languages in addition to a number of emerging disciplines. Now, the University has a vibrant and well-grounded research program, offering MS/MPhil and PhD research degrees in various disciplines. 

All Stakeholders Need to Join Hands to Improve Quality of Life in Pakistan.

All Stakeholders Need to Join Hands to Improve Quality of Life in Pakistan.

Future socio-economic well being can only be ensured if business entities, government institutions, media and communities work towards creating shared values.

Islamabad, PK – 14 March 2015 - Creating value for the citizens by engaging communities in the process of business, transparency and accountability was discussed today at a roundtable dialogue at Marriott Hotel in Islamabad organized by AGAHI. The roundtable discussion on how organizations can create value for their stakeholders focused on the future of corporate social responsibility and public relations in Pakistan. The dialogue brought together the journalists’ community and the corporate sector to explore the scope of Creating Shared Value (CSV) in promoting socio-cultural norms, protection of socio-geographic environment and ethic-driven business practices, sharing government responsibilities, and ensuring transparency in managerial practices in Pakistan. The speakers and the participants shared the challenges their organizations faced ensuring the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Public Relations (PR) vision while meeting the profit bottom line.

Puruesh Chaudhary, Founder & President AGAHI, said that the dynamics within which the businesses are operating in are evolving at an incredible pace; drivers of change being innovation and technology. The philosophy that is re-determining the functions of communications for socio-economic and improvements in human condition is a collective responsibility of all stakeholders. She further added that, “creating shared value as a separate category for the Agahi Awards - Beyond 2015 is a reason to highlight journalistic efforts for assembling information and knowledge on corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship, dignity, interfaith, and media ethics.” 

All profitable businesses are conducted in an environment, which impacts the entire value chain processes, caring for customers and other stakeholders is a good business practice, said Waheed Hamid, Director Communications at Fauji Fertilizers Company Limited (FFC). He further said, collaboration between public and private businesses could do wonders for the community. Public Relations is no more a relationship enhancement exercise, it is more of an understanding of others point of view and realigning business strategy for mutual gains for not only the businesses but also for the society they operate in. 

Corporate social responsibility (CSR), is also called referred to as corporate conscience, corporate citizenship or sustainable responsible business. This is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. CSR policy functions as a self-regulatory mechanism whereby a business monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards and international norms.

Creating shared value (CSV) is a business concept first introduced by Prof. Michael E. Porter, a leading authority on competitive strategy and head of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School, and Mark R. Kramer, Kennedy School at Harvard University and co-founder of FSG.

"The future prosperity for society lies in creating common shared values for all stakeholders collectively, businesses and government need to cater and ensure socio-economic dividends for their respective communities and clientele", said Amir Jahangir, Young Global Leader World Economic Forum.

Senior strategic communication expert, Hina Akhtar said that, many see CSR as a PR tool but if you look at it from a broader perspective, CSR is a commitment to operate as a responsible business entity, whereas a business’s primary objective is to gain financial profits, a responsible organization measures its success beyond these financial gains.

Colonel (R) Waheed Hamid, Director Communications Fauji Fertilizers Company (LTD), Hina Akhtar, Chief Executive Officer, Gold String Communications, Imran Sheikh, Educationist, Executive Vice President JS Bank, Dr. Ansir Ali Rajput Educationist and Amir Jahangir, Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum shared their views the benefits and challenges of engaging communities and other stakeholders for good business practices. A large number of business and economic journalists also attended the round table discussion.


AGAHI is a not for profit organization established in Islamabad in 2011 under the Society Registration Act 1860. Its primary function is to create non-paid communication strategies, content intelligence structures, development collateral and tools for diverse sectors and organizations. AGAHI encourages and advises individuals and institutions in pursuing and supporting initiatives to improve the state of development in Pakistan. It works on developmental frameworks facilitating information and knowledge sharing platforms on understanding challenges in global perspective. Its research work mainly focuses on national and international security, ICT, competitiveness, human capital development, and governance. AGAHI in association with several leading national and international partners focuses on creating shared spaces for interactive learning, collaborative thinking, and knowledge sharing. AGAHI is at the forefront of devising foresight research and future scenarios work in Pakistan.

This year AGAHI, celebrates AGAHI AWARDS – Beyond 2015 by recognizing best reporting practices on categories such as: Business & Economy (Competitiveness), Creating Shared Value, Disaster and Catastrophe, Education, Gender, Health, Youth Empowerment, Human Rights, Infotainment, Innovation Journalism, Judiciary, Millennium Development Goals, Journalism for Peace, Photo Journalism, Entrepreneurship, Sports, Energy, Water, Agriculture, Environment, Foreign Policy, Foresight and Futures. businesses are operating in are evolving at an incredible pace; drivers of change being innovation and technology. The philosophy that is re-determining the functions of communications for socio-economic and improvements in human condition is a collective responsibility of all stakeholders. She further added that, “creating shared value as a separate category for the Agahi Awards - Beyond 2015 is a reason to highlight journalistic efforts for assembling information and knowledge on corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship, dignity, interfaith, and media ethics.”