Businesses operating in Russia are to work together to improve the population’s health, in particular Russians’ eating habits.
BP, Interros, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, Unilever and Uralsib are
behind the initiative, which is co-ordinated by the International
Business Leaders’ Forum and will be formally set up at a business
leaders’ summit in Moscow later this year. The World Bank and the World
Health Organization are also involved.
Tackling the health crisis is ‘the most important element of corporate
responsibility in Russia today’, according to IBLF chief executive
Robert Davies, and could be a ‘catalyst for collective action with the
public health authorities’. The aim will be to slow the rapidly
increasing rates of death and chronic illness that undermine the
country’s competitiveness.
The initiative follows a roundtable of 50 company executives and public
officials in Moscow, hosted by the oil company TNK-BP and Pfizer, that
discussed the findings of a World Bank study on ill health and injuries
in Russia. Dying too young revealed that Russian men could expect to
live 16 years less than men in Western Europe, and that the life
expectancy of women was also lower compared with their
counterparts in Western Europe, though by a much smaller margin.
Patricio Marquez, author of the report, said time spent off work due to
ill health was lowering productivity. One Russian resources company
told the roundtable that 70 per cent of its male workforce had heart
disease risk factors and that smoking, alcoholism and, in some sites,
drug abuse are endemic.
The Russian Union of Industrialists has agreed to collaborate with the
IBLF on the project, which is being overseen by a business-led task
force that will set up measures to improve and monitor workers’ health.
One role of the task force, which will consist mainly of human
resources and health and safety managers from Russian and multinational
companies, will be to issue case studies showing how businesses have
benefited financially from improving the health of their workers.
Brook Horowitz, head of IBLF’s Russia Partnership, told EP: ‘We expect
that once companies have understood the cost of ill health to their
shareholders, they will develop internal and external programmes to
promote healthy work practices and lifestyles. So the first part of the
programme is to educate the business community and to help corporate
leaders understand the business case for action.’
Health economists will assess six companies to calculate how much
sickness is costing them and recommend improvements. The results will
be made public. ‘We’d like companies to reach some sort of agreement to
commit resources to dealing with this issue,’ said Horowitz. ‘However,
we don’t want it to stop at declarations. The most critical issue will
be to reach agreement on very specific individual actions by companies
and joint actions with each other, with their employees, and with local
and federal government.’
The IBLF hopes the programme will encourage Russian companies to work
collectively for the first time on an area of responsible business
practice ‘of interest to everyone’.
The conglomerate Interros and Uralsib, which is a financial holding company, both became IBLF council members in 2004.
