If we take as our premise that corporate responsibility means more than just running a company in a responsible manner – that the term is imbued with a larger sense of responsibility for humanity as well – than what role should a responsible company play in alleviating hunger?

Hunger isn't very popular as a corporate cause. It's too disturbing, too removed from the strategically linked causes most companies choose for targeting their philanthropic efforts. Many companies sell to consumers half a world away from the most dire famine victims and get better marketing mileage from spending their limited funds on issues that resonate with their consumers. That is very good reasoning – until we reach the point when it isn't.

At the start of the G8 Summit, charities such as Save the Children are warning that we have reached that point. Poor countries are slipping into famine while $15.5 billion promised at the 2009 G8 meeting have not been delivered.

Take Niger. We would be hard-pressed to find a country more removed from corporate boardrooms than this chronically impoverished sub-Saharan nation. With a largely internally focused agrarian economy, most sizable companies neither source nor sell in this country. Yet six million children, 36% of the country's population, are in danger of starving to death.

In the late 1990's, Niger revised its investment code to attract foreign private financing. In addition to investment in the country's future, children in Niger are in immediate need of vitamins, minerals and nutrients. There may be companies that see a fit between their abilities and this pressing need.

More broadly, companies should not neglect the tight connection between ensuring adequate water resources and eradicating hunger. Water scarcity is often the cause of poor harvests and ensuing famine – a problem expected to worsen as population and water demand grow. While NGOs and governments are working hard on this issue, they cannot solve it without the collaboration of the private sector, both as high-level partners, and as responsible stewards of their own water use.

Coca-Cola deserves credit for taking a leading role in partnering with the World Resources Institute to share its water scarcity mapping work for public use through the Aqueduct program. At a minimum, companies should map their sourcing and manufacturing against water-scarce regions and prioritize measures to reduce water consumption in these areas. (See this post for more on water tools.)

Back to my original question-

What role should a responsible company play in averting a potentially devastating crisis? When does a crisis demand our help?