Trade and Sustainable Development Area
Social corporate responsability

In order to encourage enterprises to commit themselves to integrating economic, environmental and social dimensions in their vision and management, FARN defined Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as an area of work requiring attention, and undertook the following activities of positioning, research and promotion:

FOLLOW-UP OF NATIONAL, REGIONAL AND
   INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES
The work begun in the first year to position FARN as a reference in this subject continued, with periodical follow-up of the different national, regional and international initiatives and active participation in diverse meetings, such as seminars, conferences and workshops. FARN was invited as a panelist to several of them, while taking part in the process of debate and reflection in others.

WORK IN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS
Nationally FARN participates in: (i) Plataforma RSE (CSR Platform), a coalition of civil society organizations involved in developing a vision of CSR, promoting the commitment of different social actors with development in a context of social inclusion and environmental protection; (ii) Observatorio de Vigilancia Social de las Empresas Transnacionales, a grouping of organizations which observes and oversees the impact of transnational companies on society, economy, culture and the environment. Internationally, FARN is a member of the OECDWatch, defined as an international network whose primary objective is the dissemination of OECD Guidelines for Multinational Companies and the exchange of information. We thus responded to the questionnaire that OECDWatch sent its members as a form of evaluating the Guidelines in these five years since the last review (2000).

RESEARCH AND PROMOTION

o OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (MNEs)
FARN worked in conjunction with the SES Foundation on an initiative funded by the Red Puentes, whose objective is to disseminate and raise awareness on the OECD Guidelines for MNEs in our country. In its first phase (second half 2004 - first half 2005) we were able to meet these objectives. Research using basic information was carried out and the results were published in "OECD Guidelines for MNEs: Basic Information" which was presented and distributed at the "Dissemination of the OECD Guidelines for MNEs" Conference, promoted along with the National Contact Point on these Guidelines (Buenos Aires, November 2004). This conference was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship (Buenos Aires, 12 November 2004) and was very successful with the attendance of over 70 participants representing government, private, academic, labour and civil society sectors. The activities that took place after the Conference basically dealt with the promotion of a working meeting in which public and private actors could articulate their action programs regarding the OECD Guidelines; a meeting that became a reality in mid-April 2005.

The second phase of this initiative, which will examine the dissemination of these Guidelines in depth as well as the generation of basic strategic information, will begin during the second half of 2005 and will be funded by the Red Puentes and OECDWatch.

• Full text of the publication:
  OCDE Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
  
  
• November 12, 2004
  Conference "Popularization of the OCDE Guidelines"
  
  
• " Presentation of Maria Fabiana Oliver in the Meeting:
  Third Panel: Vision of the NGOs
  [in PDF · 13 pgs. · 390 KB]
  
  
•  Notes about the dissertations of the Meeting's Panellist
  [in PDF · 9 pgs. · 330 KB]

o Financial System
Within the framework of the Financial Initiative of the United Nations Environment Program, (UNEP FI), FARN co-organized with ABN-AMRO a training workshop for the financial sector in Argentina on the assessment of environmental and social risks on investment and lending projects (Buenos Aires, May 2005), and a working breakfast in which the results were presented to a broader public (public, private, academic, press, NGO sectors) and with which the working agenda drawn up in the workshop was complemented. The results were more than encouraging, not only because of good attendance at both activities, but also due to the consensus generated by the debate. This consensus defined the next steps to be taken in the working agenda in the interests of deepening the awareness-raising and training process.

o Textile and Clothing Chain
As the first steps towards involving the sector in new areas such as corporate social responsibility, FARN, together with the Textile Centre of the National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI) and the Argentine Industrial Chamber of Clothing, organized a working breakfast in order to begin the task of awareness-raising (Buenos Aires, June 2005). The sector showed considerable interest and expressed its commitment to future activities oriented towards intensifying those elements that will allow for the growth of a process of strategic definition of CSR in the sector.

o ISO 26000 Guideline on Social Responsibility
FARN has been involved from an early stage in the process of formulating the ISO Guideline on Social Responsibility (ISO 26000). At the end of 2004 a process of normalization got underway in our country and in June 2005, our Institution was awarded "expert" status in the NGO group, which implies responsibility for bringing together the vision of the sector and working on it within the group created at IRAM as a mirror image of that existing in ISO.

Formal notification (Spanish)
[in PDF  ·  1 pg.  ·  15 KB]

Formal notification (English)
[in PDF  ·  1 pg.  ·  15 KB]