Accelerating the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): An actual discussion in Indonesia and Germany

The government of Indonesian is committed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Deadline for the achievement of MDGs in 2015 is in sight. Many of the targets had been reached by Indonesia, but there are also some homeworks remain to be done to meet all the MDGs. Aspect of limited government funding is seen to be an obstacle in achieving this. Therefore it is necessary to build synergy to implement development programs between the government and the private sector (private companies) that implement the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). By conducting literature study and content analysis, the indicators of CSR which are compiled from various CSR Guidelines (GRI, ISO 26000, Global Compact, OECD Guidelines for Multinational Corporation, Equator Principles, Global Sullivan Principles, Caux Round Table Discussion) show that indeed the MDGs and CSR have the same motives and goals relating to economic, social, and environment. Thus, this indicates that CSR can be harmonised with government programs to achieve the MDGs. However, implementing CSR cannot be said as a simple matter since there are some things that can be drivers/barriers for companies to implement CSR, namely: individual, institutional, and external environmental aspect. The individual aspect has very less significant effect in this study. This is slightly different from the external environmental aspect. If viewed from the perspective of external environmental aspect, government regulations may be the driver for companies to implement CSR. The government of Indonesia also encourages companies to do CSR by providing tax exemption and deduction through a few government regulations related to Income Tax and Value Added Tax. What becomes the center of attention in this study is indeed the institutional aspect (who is doing what).