7th Forum for the Future - Workshop on Private Sector’s Role in the CSR

GPoT, with the assistance of the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) and the International Development Research Center (IDRC) of Canada, organized a conference on “The Private Sector’s Role in the Area of Corporate Social Responsibility".

The event was part of the Forum for the Future, i.e. a joint initiative by the G8 and Broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA) launched with the aim to enhance dialogue between governments and civil society.

The workshop, which was held at the premises of Istanbul Kültür University between October 8th and 9th, 2010, brought together leading civil society activists, opinion leaders, private sector representatives, experts, and figures working in the area of business and industry as well as government representatives from the BMENA region, Turkey, Canada, and the US.

After H. E. Mr. Mehmet Şimşek, Minister of Finance of Turkey delivered his keynote speech, the participants broke down into four parallel workshops to discuss specific examples of best practices in the field of corporate social responsibility, cooperation between civil society and business, women’s economic participation, involvement of youth and the capacity building of civil society organizations.

The participants generated a list of recommendations, which will be presented to foreign ministers, the private sector, and civil society, with the aim of increasing corporate social responsibility at the regional level.

This workshop was funded in part by a grant from the United States Department of State. The opinions, findings and conclusions stated herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Department of State.