Abstract:
The virtue of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as the voluntary incorporation of social and
environmental concerns into business conduct has established itself as an international norm. Businesses,
intellectuals, local and international development agencies like the USAID have embraced this concept
with the hope that it could bring about sustainable development to developing countries. Using
qualitative data collection tools of semi-structured interviews and field observations, it was found out
that although the company mining the Obuasi mine - AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) seems to uphold the
concept of social responsibility, their willingness and zeal to ensure the reality of such policies are almost
non-existent. CSR is best practiced when done in partnership with the local community, but in the case of
AGA, the formulation and implementation of the policies are done by the company with very little
consultation with the people. Nonetheless, it expects the community to accept their stretched hand of
philanthropy as a favour from them and not complain about the economic, cultural, social and
environmental hazards that they have to endure as a result of the operations of the mine. Being a
signatory to the Global Compact agreement and the ISO 14001, the company has tried to consistently
improve their social commitment but they still have a very long way to go in terms of sustainable
development in the Obuasi municipality as defined by the Rio conference.
