CSR is one of the corporate aims of Global Development Group companies, which historically work in the Official Development Assistance (ODA) field. Our team works to strengthen cooperation with local public authorities and civil society to help provide people – especially the poorest – with sustainable and appropriate access to essential public services in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out by the international community in 2015.

Hydroconseil has a wide range of technical expertise in a number of areas: the environment, climate change, water resources, drinking water, sanitation, solid waste, irrigation and energy. For its part, Urbaconsulting has the skills required to help a region’s stakeholders implement their infrastructure, local governance, social and community approach, and housing action strategies. In their own way, all of these issues deal with preparing people and/or regions for the impacts of climate change.

Our development strategy is built around our raison d’être, which is itself closely linked to CSR principles: respect for humanist values and the work of our employees; SDG-focused areas of activity; the preservation of our independence (employee shareholding); and a particular focus on the quality and continuity of internal company dialogue between representatives, shareholders and the employee team.

Sustainable development is one of the group’s key internal management priorities and the group measures several Quality of Life at Work (QWL) indicators each year. The aim of our growth strategy is to create jobs, ensure the well-being and fulfilment of our employees the needs of the most vulnerable are properly taken into account.

Global Development’s main corporate aim is to provide expertise and implement projects  to improve essential public services (water, sanitation, waste, energy, transport, urban development) in developing countries . Public service is not synonymous with public management.

The group lend its expertise to all types of essential public service project , regardless of whether the public service is provided by a public or private operator under contract with a legitimate public contracting authority. All of the four companies have developed specific public-private partnership expertise, while recognising that these partnerships may not always be the ideal solution in every case.

The group business policy involves focusing on projects and clients that promote access to essential public services for the most vulnerable (the poor, marginalised urban and rural communities, minorities, etc.). For projects where this is not a key priority, the four companies strive to ensure that the needs of the most vulnerable are properly taken into account. 

There are winners and losers  in all collective development projects. It would be disingenuous to claim that nobody is ever affected by a project, especially one that involves building infrastructure and thus, potentially, expropriation. Global Development is committed to assessing the impact of the projects on which it works in order to identify the vulnerable population groups that may be affected, propose  fair and essential compensation measures and to ensure that these measures are effectively applied.

Global Development considers the development of expertise in developing countries not as a form of competition to be overcome, but as a goal to be attained. To this end, the four companies prioritise partnerships that foster the development of professional and capable consultancy firms in these countries:

By setting up joint venture and partnership agreements with firms from Southern countries whenever possible and warranted in order to ensure that services are provided jointly, in a spirit of solidarity and on an equal footing between partners;

By sharing both the benefits and the risks of the contracts won with these partners: the fair distribution of fees, workload, and financial risk, particularly as regards guarantees and deposits.

The four companies operate in countries where working conditions are often harsh and where workers’ rights are not adequately protected by law. In addition to complying with regulations (even where these are ineffective), the group strives to ensure that our partners’ employees’ working conditions, safety and remuneration are satisfactory and that they are not subjected to any form of discrimination due to their language, gender, religion or ethnicity.