Africa Practice East Africa Limited, a strategic advisory firm based in Nairobi, has now been officially recognised as a Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) certified trainer in Kenya.
GRI set standards that help businesses and governments worldwide address in a data-driven and verifiable way, the management of their socio-economic and environmental impact.
“Africa Practice has taken this step to better guide our clients to create opportunities for positive impact and mitigate issues and manage their risks proactively," said Richard Kiplagat, the Chief Commercial Officer and Managing Director at Africa Practice East Africa.
"We support a variety of clients, each with a vast stakeholder universe, and who need guidance on how to mitigate above ground risks through constructive stakeholder engagements and sustainability best practice," he added.
With issues such as climate change, human rights, governance and social well-being becoming increasingly recognised as key drivers of business sustainability, the ability for companies to use standardised management and reporting approach has become a necessary evaluation tools of their corporate governance.
In Kenya, it is the standard guiding Safaricom and KCB sustainability reports.
Sustainability reporting comes as an extension to the consultancy firms’ expertise in strategic relationship management, investor relations and risk advisory business.
In addition to using GRI standards, Africa Practice is reviewing models which will enable companies adopt the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) into their long-term strategy.
Sustainability reporting is getting to a critical moment in sub-Saharan Africa, as it moves beyond the realm of early adopters and into the mainstream.
Integrating socio-environmental concerns as management tool helps companies maximise their positive impact in the societies, they operate in.
Such an approach is now recognised as a key and much needed accelerator for the attainment of the SDG.
Speaking on behalf of GRI, Douglas Kativu, Africa Director said:“The SDG’s will not be achieved without a strong commitment and contribution of the private sector. GRI standards exist to guide this effort and to help stakeholders assess the true performance of companies."
"We are excited to now have an advisory firm such as Africa Practice be able to train companies, listed or not and sustainability practitioners in the use of our GRI standards in Kenya,”Kativu added.
