Governance Capabilities and Sustainability Concerning “Corporate-NGO” Collaboration: the Case of Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital in Bangladesh

AbstractThis paper attempts to evaluate the governance capabilities of Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital (LFH), a corporate social responsibility project in Bangladesh, in terms of significant long-term social impact, operationally defined as sustainability for the present study. Drawing on the SCALERS model proposed by Bloom and Chatterji (2009), under their proposed seven “capabilities” which determine the extent to which a project is able to scale “wide” and “deep,” the paper assesses the prospect of “scaling up” the project to create significant long-term social impact. The study used focus group discussions and interviews to collect data in four vi llages of remotechars (island bars in the river beds) located in the Jamuna River at Gaibandha district in the northern part of Bangladesh. In total, four FGDs were conducted. Managers from the corporation (Unilever Bangladesh Limited) and the non-governmental organization (Friendship) —who were directly assigned to the project—were interviewed. Some of the key findings of the paper include the following: (i) LFH’s governance capabilities are limited; (ii) although the initiative provides vital healthcare services to some of the most vulnerable and desperately poor communiti es, management of the project in terms of stakeholder participation—has been marginal; and (iii) the extent to which the project is able to scale—“wide” and “deep” was found to be low. To the question—“What does the project...
Source: Global Social Welfare - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research