Cisco: Egypt among 20 most important states for firm’s CSR program

Cisco General Manager for Egypt, North West & Central Africa Ayman Elgohary said Egypt is one of the 20 most important countries worldwide for the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy.

The company has invested over dlrs 30 million in CSR activities since 1999, he said, noting that about 110,000 people attended the company’s training programs.

He said the company has one of the most powerful social responsibility programs, noting that the the company operates in 23 countries in Africa and five in Mashriq.

He said the company is not only interested in realizing success at the commercial level, but also keen on positively affecting the societies in which it is working.

Cisco’s overarching goal, established back in 2016, is to positively affect 1 billion people worldwide by the year 2025 through its social impact grants and signature programs.

The 2019 CSR report of Cisco said that the company was already 45% there, very much ahead of schedule, with an annual impact of 209 million. This numbers were retroactively adjusted down a bit over the past year, as Cisco reevaluated how it measures progress and impact and adopted a more conservative approach.

The company’s new methodology found that the company impacted 118 million in FY16, 100 million in FY 17, 123 million in FY18, and, drumroll—128 million people in FY19.

According to the report, Cisco has now cumulatively positively impacted over 469 million people since 2016—still ahead of schedule. This represents 47% of their 2025 goal.

Cisco training and economic support programs:

Networking Academy – one of Cisco’s flagship CSR initiatives – partnered with schools, governments, and non-profits across the world. The academy trains millions of students in information and communication technology (ICT) skills every year.

In 2019, the company reached and exceeded its goal of training 2 million students through its Networking Academy by the year 2020—the official 2019 number is about 2.15 million. Cisco says it was able to achieve this through new partnerships and by extending its reach into new countries.

Cisco also shared progress from its partnership with Digital Green to increase economic opportunity for smallholder farmers who often struggle financially. With sponsorship from Cisco, Digital Green’s Loop app helps these farmers aggregate their produce and get it to markets for the best prices.

According to the report, farmers utilizing the Loop app achieved an average 17% increase in gross income.

Moreover,  the company had reached and surpassed its goal (by 115%) to avoid 1 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its supply chain between the years 2012 and 2020. Furthermore, the company announced a new goal to cut down on Cisco supply chain-related Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 30% absolute between 2019 and 2030.