A Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Approach: The hope for lost livelihood in the mining community of Obuasi municipality in Ghana

Abstract: The virtue of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as the voluntary incorporation of social and environmental concerns into business conduct has established itself as an international norm. Businesses, intellectuals, local and international development agencies like the USAID have embraced this concept with the hope that it could bring about sustainable development to developing countries. Using qualitative data collection tools of semi-structured interviews and field observations, it was found out that although the company mining the Obuasi mine - AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) seems to uphold the concept of social responsibility, their willingness and zeal to ensure the reality of such policies are almost non-existent. CSR is best practiced when done in partnership with the local community, but in the case of AGA, the formulation and implementation of the policies are done by the company with very little consultation with the people. Nonetheless, it expects the community to accept their stretched hand of philanthropy as a favour from them and not complain about the economic, cultural, social and environmental hazards that they have to endure as a result of the operations of the mine. Being a signatory to the Global Compact agreement and the ISO 14001, the company has tried to consistently improve their social commitment but they still have a very long way to go in terms of sustainable development in the Obuasi municipality as defined by the Rio conference.