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In an attempt to tackle the incidence of poverty and social exclusion in the Ghanaian society, a number of social protection programmes including the school feeding programme is introduced. The programme is designed to cater for the extreme poor and as well encourage enrolment and attendance in the country. The purpose of this paper is to assess the intention or objective for which the programme is initiated and the realities on the ground. It looks at whether the current beneficiaries are the extreme poor described in the policy document.

The study explored the incidence of poverty in Ghana using the Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS6) and the Ghana School Feeding Annual Operation Plan (GSFAOP) with the help of the school feeding policy document to draw on actual beneficiaries and potential beneficiaries. The differences between percentages of poverty (2012/2013) and feeding schools was computed using GLSS6 and GSFAOP. The study also conducted a number of open-ended interviews with some stakeholders to validate the nature of recruitment of beneficiary schools.

The study concluded that there is a mismatch of potential beneficiaries and current beneficiaries using the referred data sources. It was found out that majority of beneficiary schools are located within areas of lesser incidence of poverty. This could be attributed to political interference in view of testimonies from respondents and the computerisation of GLSS6 and GSFAOP. The study therefore proposed that the allocation of feeding schools should be done to reflect the percentage of poverty situation in each region. This could be achieved when the district education office takes control. It will help minimise the level of politicisation and as well improve efficiency.

The study therefore highlighted the relevance of the school feeding programme and the inverse relationship it has with political interference. It again demonstrates the need to restructure the operations of the programme to meet the objective for which it was established.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate Malaysian practitioners’ general perspective on corporate social responsibility (CSR) of Islamic banks and their views on having a special CSR framework.

This study used semi-structured face-to-face interviews, which contained both qualitative and quantitative data. The study also used observation and document review to support the data drawn from the research participants whenever necessary.

In total, 34 practitioners from all 16 Islamic banks in Malaysia responded to the interview questions designed for this purpose. The results show that the majority of the research participants viewed positively that Islamic banks should have a special CSR framework.

The Islamic concepts of CSR will be of interest not only to academicians but also, especially, to Islamic financial institutions. This paper will also send a strong signal to regulators that they should develop and introduce an Islamic CSR framework to Islamic financial institutions, especially Islamic banks.

This paper contributes to the growing debate on CSR among Islamic financial institutions, especially in the Islamic banking industry, by investigating practitioners’ views on having a CSR framework. In addition, to the knowledge of the authors, this is the first research that has involved Chief Executive Officers, Heads of Shari’ah, and Heads of Corporate Communications as research participants to talk about the CSR of Islamic banks.