Because social responsibility (SR) concerns us all, ISO organized an article writing contest inviting people from around the world to express their views on SR and the new ISO 26000 standard which provides organizations of all types with practical guidance on the subject.

The winner of the article writing contest is José Rakotomanjaka from Madagascar whose thought-provoking article looks at the challenges that Africa faces in sowing a responsible future (www.iso.org/iso/sr_contest_winner.htm). His article is published in the March 2011 issue of ISO’s magazine ISO Focus+ (www.iso.org/iso/iso-focusplus_2011-03.htm), whose Special Report is dedicated to ISO 26000.

The response to the contest was outstanding, with a wealth of articles received from people all over the world: from Armenia to Indonesia, from the Philippines to Japan, from experts to non-experts alike. A selection of the entries can be found here (www.iso.org/iso/sr_contest.htm).

The contest was organized through ISO’s social media presence in Facebook (www.facebook.com/isostandards) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/isostandards).