ChevronTexaco announced it is contributing $500,000 as a founding sponsor to a major initiative led by Harvard's Kennedy School of Government to enhance corporate responsibility effectiveness in addressing some of the world's most pressing social, economic, and environmental issues.
Harvard's Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative will marshal resources of business, government, academia, civil society, and the news media to address social and environmental challenges around the globe. For example, the initiative will study how the private sector can work with governments to build and sustain effective public-private partnerships in areas such as poverty eradication, HIV/AIDS, economic development, public sector capacity building and the environment. The initiative began today at Harvard with panel discussions on "The Public Role of Private Enterprise."
ChevronTexaco's corporate responsibility programs include its commitment of $25 million to the five-year, $50 million Angola Partnership Initiative. Launched in 2002, the company is working with the U.S. Agency for International Development and the United Nations Development Program to provide support for small- and medium-sized businesses through vocational training, business incubators, and micro credit loans. Additionally, in 2003, ChevronTexaco's Nigerian subsidiary received the U.S. Secretary of State's Award for Corporate Excellence. The award recognized Chevron Nigeria Limited's initiatives to improve medical treatment, AIDS prevention education, school facilities, and local power infrastructure. It also acknowledged an airlift to move community members out of harm's way during a period of civil unrest in the Niger Delta in the spring of 2003. Information on these and other efforts is available in the company's Corporate Responsibility Report at www.chevrontexaco.com/cr_report.
Other founding sponsors include The Coca-Cola Company, General Motors and Walter H. Shorenstein. The Kennedy School of Government is one of the nation's premier institutions for developing future government leaders and fostering relationships between business and government.