ANNOUNCEMENTS
India is one of the few countries that has the most elaborated CSR mechanism and implementation strategy. The CSR space in India has set a benchmark in attaining sustainable development goals (SDGs) and stakeholder activism in nation building. The Corporate Social Responsibility in India is governed by Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 (‘Act’), Schedule VII. With increasing scope, Monitoring & Evaluation of CSR projects is an ongoing tool to ensure as well as improve the impact of CSR programs.
Through this study, the aim is to understand the framework followed to carry out the M&E process for CSR programs, as well as understand how the corporates and implementation partners have been impacted after the CSR Amendment Rules 2021 from a M&E perspective. The study is conducted based on the experience at Deloitte India LLP as a social impact consulting intern. The approach for the study is to review the new CSR rules, literature around M&E frameworks, Deloitte’s approach towards M&E through live projects, compare the M&E process before and after the new rules and conclude to give some recommendations for various stakeholders for the future CSR programs.
An essential observation of the study is that the M&E process has evolved after the Amendment Rules 2021 and has led to a shift in CSR strategies of the corporations. The findings show that the role of all the stakeholders has increased due to the now stringent CSR rules around financial utilization and impact assessment. This shift in policy has definitely tread the new way CSR projects should be carried out by corporations with help of the implementation agencies. For implementation agencies, the way forward is to make some tangible changes in the program design to make them more resilient and ensure maximum impact in the proposed time by efficiently utilizing funds. This study also concludes that for the M&E process, there is an opportunity for funders to engage more with organizations such as Deloitte that expertise in M&E.
Keywords: CSR in India, CSR programs, CSR amendment rules 2021, Monitoring & Evaluation frameworks, Impact of new CSR laws
