On January 6, 2012 Emerging Markets ESG published the 52nd interview in its weekly expert interview series, “Five Questions about SRI.”
The first year of the series included 52 interviews, “Five Questions about SRI,” with academics, experts and practitioners from Africa (three), Asia (five), Australia (one), Europe (28), International Organizations (four) North America (10) and South America (one).
32 of the experts were from developed markets and 20 were from emerging markets. 16 women and 36 men contributed interviews during the first year of the series.
Next week, on Friday, January 20, 2012 Emerging Markets ESG will publish an article analyzing the responses to the 52 interviews published over the previous year. Thus, the article will bear the title “260 Insights about SRI.”
The goals of Five Questions about SRI are fourfold:
- To reflect on what SRI in emerging markets means to practitioners;
- To collect a catalogue of examples of SRI in practice in emerging markets;
- To raise awareness about SRI in emerging markets; and
- To enable SRI practitioners in emerging markets to network with peers around the world.
With these goals as a Leitmotiv, the article will analyze the responses to each of the five questions, aggregated by gender, geography and institutional background. An initial analysis of the responses already indicates interesting trends, including: a clear distinction made between responsible investing and socially responsible investing (SRI); reference to industry-specific differences in reporting on and addressing environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues; recognition of disclosure per se as a challenge across emerging markets; and some differences between responses from those based in developed countries and those based in emerging markets.
In the pipeline thus far for 2012 are interviews from Brazil, Canada, China, Poland, South Africa, Spain and Switzerland.