The law on social responsibility remains insufficient and not applicable in Tunisia due to the non-publication of the implementing texts, indicated Sami Marrouki, president of the United Nations Global Compact in Tunisia, during a conference held on Wednesday (October 26th). 2022 in Tunis on the theme: “Corporate social responsibility: axis of socio-economic development and role of the chartered accountant”. (Illustration: Sami Marrouki).
According to the president of the Global Compact, which is a UN initiative in the field of sustainable business development, the issue of social responsibility in Tunisia has not advanced since 2018, due to the trampling of the framework law on corporate social responsibility which was adopted by the dissolved parliament in the same year.
This framework law, he said, is still slow to be implemented insofar as the regulatory texts relating to the creation of regional commissions for social responsibility and the national observatory have not yet been published.
Waiting for regulatory texts
On the other hand, he noted, social responsibility has both a social character which is the prerogative of the Ministry of Social Affairs and an environmental character which is the responsibility of the Ministry of the Environment, in addition to the fact that It also includes another component related to governance which is the prerogative of the presidency of the republic.
“Given the multiplicity of actors involved in this area, there is currently no official body responsible for issuing regulatory texts,” Marrouki said.
In this regard, he stressed the importance of promoting and further developing social responsibility, adding that only about 60 companies have joined the United Nations Global Compact on Sustainable Development, stressing that the objective is to achieve 100 companies.
Special initiative of the Secretary General of the United Nations launched in 2000 and adopted by 193 countries including Tunisia (since 2005), the United Nations Global Compact is a call to companies around the world to align their practices and strategies on ten principles, which derive from the fundamentals of United Nations texts, in the areas of human rights, labor law, the environment and the fight against corruption.
The ambition of the Global Compact is to increase the global business impact by adhering to the ten principles and achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through responsible businesses and ecosystems that drive change.
The role of Conect
The number of companies adhering to the principles of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has increased since the Tunisian Confederation of Citizen Enterprises (Conect) started working on this issue in 2012, said Douja Gharbi, representative of Conect, adding that most Tunisian companies have started to adopt green and circular economy approaches, regretting the lack of government initiatives to promote this sector and the absence of laws to this effect.
The Conect has already urged the government to pay more attention to this sector, she said, noting that there is no mechanism that encourages companies to adopt the principle of corporate social responsibility.
Entrepreneurs are waiting for a new, clearer government economic vision that can identify key sectors where investment is possible, she said.
