Public sector involvement in the promotion of social responsibility – examples of sector-specific instruments with the special focus on financial sector in Poland

Abstract

The Corporate Social Responsibility concept has developed as a set of practices and tools that rely on a voluntary approach. The importance of the CSR concept and practice is acknowledged by public authorities. Public bodies have been involved in creating CSR policies at local, regional as well as country levels. There are many reasons for which the public sector is committed to promote social responsibility. In Poland one can observe a fast development of many initiatives that aim at promoting CSR in the business sector. For example, the Ministry of Economy established the Team for Corporate Social Responsibility in 2009. It consist of four working groups to help prepare recommendations for including CSR issues into new governmental strategic documents. One of those working groups was the Working Group on Social Responsible Investment (SRI). The initiative to promote socially responsible investment through the Working Group on SRI will be described and its role analysed in the paper. The sector- oriented CSR instruments and initiatives will be a background for this description.