Why social investment remains crucial during economic upheaval

By Leanne Emery-Hunter, CEO of Tshikululu Social Investments

The Middle East conflict continues to destabilise an already volatile global economy, driving energy price shocks, inflationary pressure, and heightened uncertainty for developing economies, particularly those exposed to energy and currency volatility.

In South Africa, economic shockwaves continue to drive up fuel prices, strain energy systems, and push the cost of living beyond reach. Against a backdrop of persistent inequality and unemployment, the impact is particularly acute. Vulnerable communities are being hit the hardest, as food insecurity deepens, access to basic services becomes more constrained, and households are forced into difficult trade-offs between essential needs.  

In this context, the role of corporate social investment (CSI) becomes even more significant. Corporates are navigating a complex balancing act—supporting vulnerable communities while managing increasing internal cost pressures. This presents a clear challenge, but it is also a call to rethink how social investment is structured to build resilience in the face of ongoing global volatility.

A practical starting point is addressing fragmentation. In many organisations, different teams manage different programmes in silos, which can lead to duplicated effort and diluted impact. Combining these levers and aligning them to a unified goal creates a social impact ecosystem where programmes reinforce one another. This approach is about systems, not single programmes. Investment becomes effective, sustainable, and impactful where it is needed most. 

We cannot build resilient, future-proof systems alone.  While corporate social investment plays an important role, it is significantly smaller in scale than government expenditure on social development. Maintaining meaningful impact in a high-cost environment therefore requires stronger collaboration across sectors. Partnerships between corporates, philanthropies, non-profits, government, and communities enable resources to be better aligned, ensuring that interventions are both scalable and sustainable.

In practice, this kind of collaboration is already taking shape. In the Northern Cape, we are working with multiple companies operating in the renewable energy and mining sectors that are actively aligning their social investment resources across a shared geographic area. They are working together to compound impact in sectors such as education and health. Rather than each company pursuing separate programmes in the same communities, they are pooling focus and coordinating outputs. This model demonstrates how cross-sector collaboration can move from principle to practice, and from isolated interventions to systemic change.

While global economic volatility may sit beyond the control of South African corporates, the way organisations respond locally is firmly within their influence. The question is no longer whether to invest in social impact, but how to do so more effectively. Those that move toward more integrated, collaborative approaches will be better positioned to build resilience—not only within the communities they serve, but within their own organisations. In an increasingly uncertain world, social investment is no longer a peripheral activity; it is a core part of long-term sustainability.