CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND COMMUNITY HEALTH IN THE UAE: THE CASE OF THE AL JAZIRA SPORT AND HEALTH FOUNDATION

Authors: Professor Hans Westerbeek, Professor Aaron Smith
La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
Correspondence: Hans Westerbeek, Associate Professor, La Trobe University
School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management, Faculty of Law and Management
Bundoora, 3086, Melbourne, Australia
Phone: +61 3 9479 1220, E-mail:westerbeek@latrobe.edu.au

INTRODUCTION

It is common knowledge among medical and health researchers that adult obesity increases the risk of diabetes mellitus, cancer, coronary heart disease hypertension and respiratory disease. , , More recent research in the United Arab Emirates suggests that the prevalence of childhood obesity is increasing dramatically, already surpassing the high levels of obesity that have been found amongst children and adolescents in the USA and Europe. Further outcomes of these studies suggest that childhood obesity is likely to persist into adult life where it is increasingly difficult to treat. This may be the result of early negative medical effects resulting from long-term obesity and the difficulties obese people may have in turning around prolonged sedentary lifestyles. As a matter of fact, obesity during childhood and adolescence are predictors of morbidity and mortality during adulthood and therefore, the best way to treat adult obesity may well be to prevent childhood obesity.

Specifically in the context of the Arab Gulf countries and the United Arab Emirates in particular, is has been widely reported that obesity is a major health problem which has surfaced mainly throughout the past two decades of economic boom. A new generation of Emirati have grown up during this period of unprecedented economic growth and social change. Enormous wealth as a result of oil riches has led to a remarkable change in lifestyle from a traditional Bedouin desert environment in which the daily diet largely consisted of vegetables and fruits, to a predominantly (US influenced) Western lifestyle with diets that include (fast) foods that contain much higher levels of sugar and fat. , Combined with more sedentary lifestyles promulgated by transport by car, rather than walking or biking and sitting in front of computer screens or televisions as a means of education and entertainment, it is not a big surprise that childhood obesity continues to increase. Al-Haddad et al. conclude their study into the prevalence of obesity among school children in the UAE with the naming that public health interventions are needed to combat the increasing prevalence of obesity. They argue that "nutrition plays a major role because changing economic and social environments affect caloric intake. An important related factor is physical activity and recreation patterns factors that are also affected by the economic and social environment". Al-Hourani et al. concur in that the "high prevalence of overweight or at risk for overweight in adolescent females may be due to inadequate school physical activity programs. In the UAE undertaking physical activity may be difficult due to…the cultural attitude of restricting physical activity by females". Recent research reported that obesity among male university students in the UAE was significantly linked to a family history of obesity and a lack of practising sport. It needs to be noted that both the obese (8.4%) and non-obese (17.1%) reported low levels of regular involvement in sport. This paper further reports on an initiative that has been taken by the Al Jazira Sports and Cultural Club in Abu Dhabi. As a government funded organisation it has taken on the challenge to use its primary platform - sport - to become more involved and integrated in the community to which it delivers its sporting products. As a sport organisation it has certain social responsibilities, some of which will be outlined in the next section of the paper. In the final part of the paper the Al Jazira Sport and Health Foundation will be introduced as a tool for corporate partners to deploy corporate social responsibility, in the process contributing to solving a major societal problem.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND COMMUNITY HEALTH

Community can best be seen as "the artful act of co-operation among people with a variety of different abilities, needs and views of the world - cultural diversity". It can be argued that the social infrastructure of local communities, such as the traditional Bedouin communities in the UAE, has been eroded by industrialisation and the transition to a global economy. This has led to a loss of so-called social capital, or in other words the productive value of citizens embedded within a dense social network. Stated differently, where in traditional communities support structures and provision for (healthy) traditional lifestyles were delivered 'naturally', a dramatic rise in economic wealth has also led to a loss of social capital. This social capital has been replaced by material wealth, but without a context in which best to consume this newfound excess. Corporations producing this wealth rely on communities and their constituents to achieve economic prosperity, and they have been slow to find ways of (re)connecting with these communities. One approach for corporations to reconnect, or indeed to attend to its corporate social responsibility, is through sport. As a matter of fact, the International Business Leaders Forum and UK Sport in their joint paper about sport and business engagement in partnerships for development, argue that sport has twofold development benefits: firstly related to improved health and wellness through the inherent benefits of physical activity; and secondly as a medium for delivering other development objectives such as education and economic development. Editor: Check for this later - Also a benefit of increased opportunity for social interaction. In the context of this paper we will focus on the development potential of sport regarding community health, and how a partnership with business can also satisfy objectives regarding corporate social responsibility for both the sport organisation and the corporation.

(SOME) SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF SPORT

It has been argued that in considering the dimensions associated with social responsibility in sport, one has to seek characteristics that are distinguished in sport. Rather than overlooking the generic elements of social responsibility for organisations it therefore makes good sense to incorporate them into a more sport-specific list of responsibilities. Guided by sources such as the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the UNESCO Project on Technical and Vocational Education, the UN Global Compact, the International Labour Standards Convention, the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour, and best practices in the corporate world, Smith and Westerbeek listed 10 unique social responsibilities of sport. Much along the same lines May and Phelan list 10 examples of sport and business partnerships in action. In the interest of focus we only list three conflated examples that directly relate to this paper. They are:

	Sport and Health. Participation sport should acknowledge and enhance opportunities for health and physical activity through policies directed towards recognition of the importance of physical activity to the health of society at large.
	Sport and Education. A key ingredient of the social impact of sport is the developmental opportunities it affords. Policies to formalise this commitment to physical, social and personal education are relevant to social responsibility.
	Sport and Youth Development. Sport and its comprehensive range of opportunities to become (voluntarily) involved with the delivery of program or organisation of events offers a training and meeting ground for under- or unemployed youngsters to develop professional and social skills.

The Al Jazira Sports and Cultural Club has displayed the awareness that sport has unique social responsibilities and has set up the Al Jazira Sport and Health Foundation in order to tap into this power of sport as a social influencer. As a result, corporate managers are now considering relationships with the programs set up by the Foundation to better match their own social engagement strategy. A brief overview of the Foundation will be provided in the concluding section of this paper.

THE AL JAZIRA SPORT AND HEALTH FOUNDATION

The Al Jazira Sports and Health Foundation is set up as an initiative of the Al Jazira Sport and Cultural Club, a government supported sport organisation in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi. The purpose of the foundation is in the interest of the people of Abu Dhabi and indeed, the people of the UAE which is why HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and HH Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, the respective Ministers of the Ministry of Presidential Affairs and the Ministry of Education are important stakeholders and supporters of the initiative. Early 2005 these Ministers signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the two Ministries, officially launching the Foundation to the rest of the world.

Because the purpose of the Foundation goes beyond the scope of the Al Jazira Club, which primarily is preoccupied with servicing its membership and organising high quality football (and other sport) services, it was decided to set up the Foundation at a location where educational (sport and health) programs can be developed and delivered. The Al Jazira Sport and Health Foundation therefore is based at the Abu Dhabi Mens College (ADMC), as part of the ADMC Centre of Excellence for Applied Research and Training. In the long term the foundation will assist the Al Jazira Club in achieving the long term strategic objectives as formulated in its strategic plan. These objectives are:

	To change the sport culture: to be an important contributor to changing the culture of sport participation and spectatorship in the UAE as a whole;
	To improve the sport quality: to create and deliver high quality sport to the local Abu Dhabi communities; and
	To improve community health: to partner with relevant Government departments in putting in place a comprehensive Sport-Health-Community marketing communication strategy.

Derived from these objectives is the mission statement of the Foundation which aims to recognise the Al Jazira Sport and Health Foundation as the number 1 organisation in the UAE charged with the development, promotion, implementation and management of Sport and Health related community programs. In its first year of operation the Foundation aims its activities at primary and secondary school children and their teachers and parents and seeks to deliver the following products and services:

	'Be Active' Community events that are run in conjunction with the Al Jazira Club, such as fun runs.
	Youth sport development programs in the schools such as the 'improving physical education programs' of the Blue Earth Institute in Australia.
	Modified soccer competitions between the schools.
	Health education programs in the schools and in the community, for example, in conjunction with the World Health Organisation (a tentative collaboration agreement with WHO was established in December 2004) in regard to the dangers of sedentary lifestyles, community obesity and diabetes, and what needs to be done to change this.
	Talent identification programs in conjunction with the Al Jazira Club to select high potential children to be invited to play sport with leading sport organisations around the country (including the Al Jazira Club).

CORPORATE AND SPORT SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Sport as a powerful means of communication bestows upon it greater responsibilities for demonstrating corporate citizenship. It was shown in this paper that sport itself has social responsibilities to discharge. Sport could be a force for good in a troubled world. However, maybe even more importantly, it was shown that sport holds tremendous potential as tool for others (corporations) to deploy corporate social responsibility. In the specific case of the Al Jazira Sport and Health Foundation, the social responsibilities of a sport organisation have been successfully married with the responsibilities of government (in this case community health through education) and hopefully in the nearby future, with the social responsibilities of big business.

Given the philosophical overlaps in the social intentions of a sport organisation (Al Jazira) and its potential corporate and governmental partners, there are unique advantages to be found in the marriage. The corporate partner in particular offers resources that up until now have been unavailable to socially-invested sports, even those with considerable elite support bases. On the other hand sport assembles tremendous passion and vicarious identification at levels that corporations can only dream about. The global reach of sport also provides a high impact vehicle for social messages and engagement. However, without the financial backing of corporate partners, the value of sport as a vehicle for social responsibility is limited.

In this particular case it was shown that sport offers great scope for participation and inclusion, thereby enhancing social investments. Sport also has an inherent appeal to young people, from both a participative and spectator viewpoint. In this sense, social responsibility can be exercised with both 'push' and 'pull' support; participation-based programs can encourage involvement, while high profile sports-people can provide role models for emulation. In addition, children tend to report that youth sport is advantageous in that it improves self-esteem, advances good citizenship, fosters the value of mastery and cooperation, and encourages a physically active lifestyle. Many of these features are core components of successful modified junior sport programs. Finally it can be argued that sport offers one of the key solutions to the social problem of deteriorating health standards. By its very nature, sport offers an ideal platform to encourage activity and health awareness. Ideal programs can leverage this relationship, cognisant of the need to neutralise any potential physical risks. The advantages of physical activity require little justification, and have been well-established in numerous national and cultural circumstances to promote psychological well-being, reduce stress, anxiety and depression, improve physical development, diminish risky behaviours, strengthen communities and decrease government health expenditure. , , ,

This paper argued the case of decreasing community health as a result of increasing prevalence of obesity in childhood and young adulthood in the United Arab Emirates. Research shows that the best way to treat adult obesity is to prevent childhood obesity. One (important) way to achieve this objective is to promote active lifestyles through sport participation. A means to finance such programs is to appeal to corporations' social responsibilities and in particular responsibilities towards community health. Corporations can deploy their social responsibilities through sport and it was shown that the Al Jazira Sport and Health Foundation offers such a deployment tool.

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