Who Qualifies as a Corporate Social Responsibility Stakeholder? Assessing Tanzania’s Legal Regime Against International Standards

Abstract

It has been challenging for businesses to identify relevant stakeholders for corporate social responsibility. This article assesses how current laws in Tanzania identify stakeholders and whether such identification aligns with international frameworks. The article adopted doctrinal research to critically examine the structure, certainty, and scope of laws in identifying relevant stakeholders. Then, the article comparatively analysed the laws of Tanzania and their alignment with international frameworks. It is found that current laws identify government actors, employees and potential victims of business activities as relevant stakeholders based on the impact and inclusive bases. However, such identification falls short of international standards because it is narrow-based, government-centric, ambiguous, and lacks a requirement for regular review and updating. Consequently, other relevant stakeholders, including consumers and local communities, are often excluded from corporate social responsibility, ultimately diminishing their role in promoting responsible business practices for sustainable development in Tanzania.