Africa Practice Earns Global Reporting Initiative Trainer’s Certification in Kenya

Africa Practice East Africa Limited, a strategic advisory firm based in Nairobi has now been officially recognized as a Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) certified trainer in Kenya.

GRI set standards that help businesses and governments worldwide address in a data-driven and verifiable way, the management of their socio-economic and environmental impact.

“Africa Practice has taken this step to better guide our clients to create opportunities for positive impact and mitigate issues and manage their risks proactively. We support a variety of clients, each with a vast stakeholder universe, and who need guidance on how to mitigate above-ground risks through constructive stakeholder engagements and sustainability best practice.” Said Richard Kiplagat, the Chief Commercial Officer and Managing Director at Africa Practice East Africa.

With issues such as climate change, human rights, governance, and social well-being becoming increasingly recognized as key drivers of business sustainability, the ability for companies to use standardized management and reporting approach has become a necessary evaluation tool of their corporate governance. In Kenya, it is the standard guiding Safaricom and KCB sustainability reports.

Sustainability reporting comes as an extension to the consultancy firms’ expertise in strategic relationship management, investor relations, and risk advisory business. In addition to using GRI standards, Africa Practice is reviewing models which will enable companies to adopt the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) into their long-term strategy.

Sustainability reporting is getting to a critical moment in sub-Saharan Africa, as it moves beyond the realm of early adopters and into the mainstream. Integrating socio-environmental concerns as a management tool helps companies maximize their positive impact on the societies, they operate in. Such an approach is now recognized as a key and much-needed accelerator for the attainment of the SDG.

Speaking on behalf of GRI, Douglas Kativu, Africa Director said, “The SDG’s will not be achieved without a strong commitment and contribution of the private sector. GRI standards exist to guide this effort and to help stakeholders assess the true performance of companies. We are excited to now have an advisory firm such as Africa Practice be able to train companies, listed or not and sustainability practitioners in the use of our GRI standards in Kenya.”

Richard Kiplagat also added that “We are hugely grateful for the teams’ efforts towards GRI certification. We want to support organizations in Kenya and Africa to align their strategy with the long-term SDG goals and national priorities for the good of humanity. This could not have come at a better time.”

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) information is a new form of corporate reporting that many organizations are considering globally, and Kenyan companies are quickly joining the practice.  Sustainability reporting in Africa has evolved in the last decade. Today, there is a paradigm shift in the way sustainability reporting is perceived.

Information that was once considered as proprietary, non- financial and management accounting in nature is now widely analyzed just like the financial information by different kind of actors across the various section. By encouraging listed firms to disclose their performance in these non-financial areas as part of its code of corporate governance, Kenyan Capital Market is one of the first on the continent to drive the adoption of such best sustainability practice as a driver of Kenyan competitiveness.