‘03

"OUR APPROACH OVER THE LAST THREE YEARS COULD BE SUMMARISED AS LOOKING 'BEYOND THE OBVIOUS'. WE LOOKED PRIMARILY FOR LONG-TERM PROJECTS THAT OFFERED SUSTAINABLE OUTCOMES. IN THE NEXT THREE YEARS WE INTEND TO MORE CLOSELY INTEGRATE OUR ACTIVITIES INTO THE ORGANISATION'S CORE BUSINESS. OUR OBJECTIVE IS TO MOVE THE ORGANISATION AWAY FROM VIEWING SOCIAL INVESTMENT AS SOMETHING SEPARATE FROM THE DAY-TO-DAY FUNCTIONS OF OLD MUTUAL TO PART OF WHAT WE DO, EVERYDAY." Kate Miszewski

OLD MUTUAL HIGHLIGHTS

The Mail and Guardian newspaper recognised the efficacy of Old Mutual's social investment strategies and activities when they awarded the company a clean sweep of corporate prizes in their 2003 “Investing in the Future Awards”.

The company's involvement in the Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI) won the Overall Prize for Corporations, and the Staff Volunteerism Programme won in the Corporate Employee Community Involvement Programme category.

The judges praised the initiatives for their “wise use of resources and admirable principles” and for “setting a good example” respectively.

The Old Mutual Foundation is the custodian of the company's corporate social investment strategy. It was set up in 2001 to centralise the various activities that had previously been entrusted to business units.

 This reporting period coincides with the last year of the Foundation's first three-year medium-term strategy. It is fitting then, that in recounting the company's social investment via the Foundation, this section describes the outcomes of the last three years.

The main thrusts at the outset were that the strategy should be accomplished within a budget of R20 million a year. The intention was to proactively identify large “flagship” projects which concentrated on the major focus areas of rural economic development, education, HIV/AIDS and staff volunteerism.