Project summaries
CSR Project 2009/2010
"ENHANCING TRANSPARENCY AND CREDIBILITY OF CSR PRACTICES THROUGH ESTABLISHMENT OF CSR PERFOMANCE ASSESSMENT AND MONITORING SYSTEM IN NEW EU MEMBER STATES"
The project aims to enable measuring and monitoring CSR performance and the level of excellence achieved in CSR practices at macro and micro levels in project countries through development of country level CSR performance indicators and CSR practice monitoring systems and brokering agreement on them, building capacities for such monitoring, as well as developing/testing self-assessment tools for companies and enhancing their capacities to apply performance indicators. The Project is expected to enhance the transparency and credibility of CSR practices and lay a basis for country level CSR measurement and monitoring systems in selected EU member states: Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Slovak Republic.
The Project builds upon the results of the regional CSR project “Accelerating CSR practices in the new EU member states and candidate countries as a vehicle for harmonization, competitiveness and social cohesion in EU“, successfully completed by UNDP in 2008. It answers the recommendations of the Baseline Study on CSR Practices in the New EU Member States and Candidate Countries (to achieve consensus on country level performance indicators and develop a measurement framework at country level in order to further accelerate CSR development). The project relies on existing networks of the UN Global Compact facilitated by UNDP offices. The target beneficiaries will mainly be companies (both local and foreign enterprises) and government institutions, but other stakeholders (business and professional associations, trade unions, academia, non-governmental organizations and the media) will indirectly benefit from the action.
To achieve its objective, the project will cover the following 2 components and related activities:
Component 1:
Development, through research and consultations, of a country level CSR performance measurement system to assess and monitor CSR excellence. This will include elaboration of a set of performance indicators and training of country representatives on practical implementation of CSR measurement methodology as a basis for establishing CSR monitoring systems in project countries.
Component 2:
Strengthening capacity of companies to assess their own CSR performance through development of practical methodology and a self-assessment tool to measure CSR performance against certain objective company level indicators, training of trainers and development of a handbook on self-assessment practices.
CSR Project 2006/2008
“Accelerating CSR practices in the new EU member states and candidate countries as a vehicle for harmonization, competitiveness and social cohesion in the EU”
(a) Main objective of the project
The main objective of the project is to accelerate the implementation of CSR practices in new EU Member States and in candidate countries as the vehicle for EU harmonization, improving competitiveness and social cohesion. This will be achieved by mapping out the CSR activities and actors and identify capacity gaps and corresponding areas of intervention, exchange of experience and good practices, awareness raising and capacity building of national stakeholders. The target countries are the following: Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Croatia and Turkey. Old EU MSs, on the other hand, will be involved in the Project by contributing to exchange of experience and good CSR practices with identified stakeholders in the target countries. The target beneficiaries will not only include companies (both local and foreign enterprises) but also intermediaries like business and professional associations, local and national governments, trade unions, academia, non-governmental organizations and the media in the Project countries.
(b) Expected results
The Project will have the following expected results:
■ Provide a comprehensive situational analysis of CSR activities and actors in the region, across a wide representation of stakeholders with a view to determine the extent of dialogue on CSR between various actors and their level of understanding, awareness and engagement in CSR activities, as well as identifying the key drivers motivating companies to become involved in CSR activities.
■ Awareness about CSR among companies and CSR stakeholders in the Project countries is enhanced; support is provided to experience sharing and exchange of good practice on CSR; CSR promotion and implementation is enhanced by actively engaging local media.
■ Trust (social capital) is built between various stakeholders and the businesses engaged in CSR, stemming from a better understanding of respective objectives as well as the challenges and opportunities of collaboration.
■ Capacity of national/local stakeholders engaged in CSR will be strengthened to enable them to contribute efficiently to CSR promotion and implementation, actively participate in national multi-stakeholder forums and to network on experience exchange in Europe.
■ CSR will be promoted and adopted as a practical tool for local business that integrates them into the EU market and accordingly, will build their competitiveness on the world market.
■ A database on available CSR materials and tools in Europe will be created to serve as a capacity building tool at the national, local and European level.
■ Establishment of National CSR Agendas in Project countries.
(c) Components of the project
Component 1: Situational analysis of CSR status and engagement of actors in the region
It is critical to gain a thorough understanding of the status of CSR awareness and engagement among the various targeted stakeholders concerned prior to putting in efforts and formulating activities to accelerate CSR promotion and implementation in the region. An understanding of CSR status, supported by facts and a mapping of actors and their activities, will produce baseline data on CSR for the project countries, which will serve as basis for measurement of CSR progress. It will also provide data on the level of business engagement in implementing CSR practices with examples of practical implementation of CSR in the region. The data will be complemented by the findings of the recent EC and World Bank study on CSR understanding by companies.
A Baseline Survey among all relevant stakeholders (local and foreign businesses, business and professional associations, trade unions, local and national governments, non-governmental organizations, media, trade unions and academia) will be undertaken in each Project country with the objective to:
• Identify the actors/entities who promote CSR at country level.
• Assess the level of engagement in CSR of actors/entities promoting CSR at country level.
• Assess the level of dialogue between different actors promoting CSR.
• Identify the level of foreign/domestic business engagement in CSR implementation at the country level and collect examples of good practices (in particular those that are linked to a business case).
• Identify capacity gaps/constraints faced by CSR promoters and business entities in engaging in CSR activities.
• Identify widely used CSR-tools for companies, including the following: toolkits, management systems, training programmes and reporting initiatives, widely used certification systems and the frequently applied definition of CSR.
• Formulate recommendations and suggest specific activities based on the findings of the survey, which will feed into Components 2 and 3 respectively of the Project (see below)
Component 2: Promote multi-stakeholder dialogue at the strategic level to enhance awareness and exchange good practices for CSR advancement in the region
At the strategic level, in view of the relatively low awareness on CSR in the region and in line with the findings of the baseline survey carried out under Component 1 above, the project will promote dialogue between the different stakeholders (companies - both local and foreign enterprises - business and professional associations, local and national governments, trade unions, academia, non-governmental organizations and the media) to enhance their awareness, improve their knowledge on CSR, encourage joint CSR activities, as well as provide a multi-stakeholder platform to discuss and exchange views on business cases, tools and reporting and possible economic incentives and recognition tools as mechanisms to further engage companies in CSR in the region. It will also contribute to the building of social trust between the various stakeholders and the business community. Awareness raising activities will be tailored in terms of language and content depending on the different requirements and goals of social actors involved.
These multi-stakeholder forums will capitalize on the Commission’s work on CSR (previous EU multistakeholder forum on CSR and the European Alliance for CSR ), national initiatives in old member states (e.g. square table in Spain on CSR-related issues), GC/CSR networks, as well as other initiatives (ILO, OECD and UN Global Compact) to bring significantly more impact to the engagement of stakeholders on CSR. These forums will aim at:
a) Establishing and converging towards a common understanding of CSR among all stakeholders;
b) Encouraging more enterprises of all size to adopt a business approach that engages in CSR strategically, to develop instruments for it, to achieve the objectives of transparency towards consumers (with the latter playing an important role in providing incentives for responsible production and responsible business behaviour);
c) Enhancing the role of employees, employers’ organizations and trade unions in the development and implementation of CSR practices;
d) Encouraging external stakeholders (NGOs, consumers and investors) to play a stronger role in encouraging, endorsing and rewarding responsible business conduct;
e) Encouraging public authorities to discuss with other stakeholders on the provision of a business-friendly environment in which entrepreneurs and enterprises can flourish and grow as well as on incentive/reward mechanisms to companies implementing CSR initiatives. Given the increased recognition that CSR contributes to a more sustainable development, there is a clearly a strong role for government to promote and reward socially and environmentally responsible practices by enterprises.
f) Fostering the atmosphere of dialogue and social trust between various stakeholders and businesses.
Component 3: Develop and strengthen capacity of existing and future CSR stakeholders at the national/local level to promote and implement CSR.
Capacity building and strengthening will be carried out by familiarizing the stakeholders with concrete CSR implementation tools and their use in specific circumstances, exposing stakeholders to concrete CSR practices and case studies on CSR mainstreaming. Capacity building will focus in particular on the social, ethical and environmental dimension of CSR and on the role of CSR in economic development and enhancing competitiveness. This will build a critical mass of actors with the necessary CSR competence among the various stakeholders in the Project countries that could be later conveniently multiplied through a series of capacity building events carried out at the national/local level and the development of common training tools.