USING CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY CSR TO COMPLEMENT ACHIEVEMENT OF MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGs) AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGs) IN NIGERIA

¹Umeora Chinweobo Emmanuel and ² Okonkwo Onuigbo

¹Department of Banking and Finance, Anambra State University, Igbariam Campus, Nigeria

²Department of Accounting and Finance, Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu, Nigeria

E-mail: ceumeora@yahoo.com

Abstract: The study reviewed how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of private sector firms can be coupled by the government into the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Millennium Development Goals, as a programme, was launched by United Nations in 2000 to last up to 2015. Eight goals were set up ranging from eradication of extreme poverty to reduction of environmental degradation. The MDGs scheme is winding up in 2015. The scheme is now conceived to be extended for another fifteen years under a new caption ‘Sustainable Development Goals’. The goals remain almost the same as MDGs except that the eight goals of MDGs have been expanded to seventeen goals. The study adopted theoretical and discursive method to review the issues involved. Some ways the government can co-opt the private sector CSR have been suggested. The government is reminded that CRS is voluntary and should not be made to appear mandatory.