Development of Sustainability Reporting in Zimbabwe: A Comparative Analysis of the United Kingdom, Malaysia and South Africa

Abstract

Sustainability reporting has emerged as a possible panacea to contemporary challenges that face society, such as climate change, biodiversity, resource scarcity, growing inequality and modern slavery. Zimbabwe introduced its own 'homegrown National Corporate Governance Code in 2015, shortened by Zimcode after years of corporate self-regulation and reliance on the South African and United Kingdom Codes. Corporate governance codes worldwide are constantly changing, and even after the introduction, introspection is still pertinent. Some of the key features of Zimcode are stakeholder inclusivity and sustainability reporting under the gamut of the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) framework. The novelty of these concepts has led to intense debate regarding their effective application. Malaysia, the United Kingdom, and South Africa have played pioneering roles in the development of these concepts. Given this background, the main objective of this study was to explore how Zimbabwe could gain from the application and experience of these countries in the areas of sustainability reporting and stakeholder engagements. The illustrative Case Study research strategy was used through qualitative descriptive data analysis. The findings were that Zimbabwe should use single international sustainability reporting standards, adopt the ‘apply and explain’ principle, use the integrated thinking concept alongside integrated reporting and apply the concept of proportionality to accommodate entities at various stages of development.