France: The congé de solidarité internationale

Giving money to international NGOs is politically correct, but not so efficient for CEOs. They now prefer encouraging their own employees to spend some time abroad to help them building emergency or sustainable solutions to eradicate or to soften poverty-related problems. Increasingly, big businesses intend to promote a culture of commitment, responsible leadership, in strengthening organizational values, and stakeholder trust first among their staff, and to find inspiration and new insight on some of the most pressing issues facing developed and under-developed countries. The French legislation includes since 1995 a special regulation on the so-called ” congé de solidarité internationale “, which allows an employee to leave for 6 months maximum his/her enterprise, without being paid. But the work contract is not broke out, it is just suspended. The other condition is to be on humanitarian mission. The NGO Planète Urgence since its creation in 1999 has sent 500 people on humanitarian missions with the financial assistance of 150 companies and local governments. This association is specialized in meeting the new demands from companies and in helping the volunteers to find some subsidies to cover their costs. Most of the missions proposed by Planète Urgence take place in West Africa, in Zimbabwe, the West Indies or Indonesia, in Afghanistan or Bolivia. www.planete-urgence.org