The future we talked about and often ignored is now here, in its very real, aggravated form: climate change, changing the course of the land. Climate change and its adverse impacts are no longer left to imagination but today’s stark reality. Like the rest of the world, Pakistan is also experiencing serious climate change, including recurring floods, changing weather patterns, intensifying heatwaves, and frequent landslides in glacial regions. Recent floods have done devastating damage to both urban and rural parts of the country.

NDMA (national disaster management authority) and other government agencies are trying to the best of their capacity to manage post-disaster management, which surely isn’t enough. It is imperative for the government to facilitate the disaster management authorities in upskilling to respond to disasters and to put in place mechanisms to learn to be proactive and limit the risk of disasters. Though the government’s role is often discussed and criticized, it is equally important that other entities also step up to help the nation when in need. Such initiatives are not a far-fetched dream, but a reality in the form of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Corporate Social Responsibility hinges on the principle that businesses have a prevailing need to look beyond their operations and focus on building marginalized communities and societies without any legal bindings, making it a voluntary action. The current form of CSR has been developed through many evolutionary stages, which began from merely highlighting the business to stretch to a level where CSR became a strategic factor for managing sustainability........

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