TruCSR, the organizers of The Sustainability, Entrepreneurship and Responsibility Awards.CSR Awards Africa (SERAS) have announced a project partnership with www.social-tv.co.za , a South Africa- a leading online platform in South Africa dedicated to promoting Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, and Sustainable Development in the southern Africa region.
www.social-tv.co.za will act as promoters of the awards, and liaison to all the organisations
from the Southern African region seeking to participate in the awards.
The theme for the 2020 edition is- Decade of Action: Accelerating Sustainable Development in Africa Through Collaborations which is line with the United Nations vision to foster collaboration.
“Only partnerships can drive the inclusive implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. They have the strong potential to unlock progress across multiple SDGs, acting as the connective tissues that can ensure an integrated and holistic approach to sustainable development,” said Amina J. Mohammed Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations.
Besides the 2030 Agenda, African countries have committed to implement the African Union Agenda 2063, which is both a vision and a plan to build a more prosperous Africa in 50 years. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development acknowledges the importance of the AU Agenda 2063 and considers it an integral part of it.
Africa has made significant progress on the Millennium Development Goals, including enrolling more children in primary school, particularly girls, increasing the representation of women in national parliaments, and reducing child and maternal deaths and the proportion of people infected with HIV.
The SERAS, currently in its 14th cycle, was first held in July 2007. Since then, it has drawn participation from 19 countries, and attracted over 1242 entries from over 500 organisations. The thorough awards process that ensures physical verification and documentation of projects entered via site photography, videos, and interviews of various stakeholders (the only awards platform of its kind with such depths in its fact-finding process), has visited over 5000 project locations around Africa.
In 2016, Investec Bank, Netcare, and eight others became the first organisations from South Africa to take part in The SERAS. Investec Bank emerged as the Overall winner and Most Responsible Business in Africa.
Speaking on the partnership, Ken Egbas, founder of the awards, says, “we are
delighted for the opportunity to work with Social TV. For us, it was an easy decision
to make after listening to Samm Marshall and Viwe Tyolwana speak about their work
and vision for enabling an equitable and just society where businesses look out for the most vulnerable in society as a way of ensuring inclusive development, during our first meeting, it was so easy to see that they represent the future direction of driving further adoption and promotion of sustainability in South Africa, a role akin to ours in the West African region. I have no doubt that our working together will drive the future of sustainability in Africa.”
There are 25 award categories up for grabs tailored in line with the 17 sustainable development goals of the United Nations. Entry for The SERAS 2020 closes on September 30th. Participants can register by logging onto www.theseras.com.
Winners would be announced on November 7th, 2020.
