As Corporate Social Responsibility Association of Turkey, an independent NGO formed in 2005 by the efforts from academics, businesses and other civil society organizations. CSR Turkey aims to promote CSR notion within international standards in Turkey and to increase CSR awareness which already exists with foundations, associations and guild culture in Turkey.
CSR Turkey operates with an approach based on sustainable progress, corporate governance, public-civil society & private sector partnership. The mission of Corporate Social Responsibility Association of Turkey (CSR Turkey) is to create tools, resources and methodologies for business to behave socially responsible on social, economic and environmental issues so that business can have a positive impact on the development of the society. It works in the area of scientific research, trainings, consulting and advocacy. CSR Turkey has 21 corporate members and 25 individual members. There are 7 members in Advisory Board and 7 members in the Executive Board of CSR Turkey. All members are experts in their fields at national and international level. The member’ experience in management and implementation many projects can be seen through our website and members’ online accounts. CSR Turkey also has four full time and two-part time human resource in Istanbul.
CSR Turkey works in the fields of SDG’s, Jobs & Skills, Sustainable Cities, Human Rights in Business, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math; Entrepreneurship, Corporate Governance, Sustainability Reporting, scientific researches for CSR and CSR trainings. Other than that, CSR Turkey worked with CSR Ukraine (Enhancing CSR in Ukraine Project), CSR Iran (Accelerating CSR in Iran Project) and other organizations from Romania and Bulgaria (TRAINEAST project, CSR lectures for the future leaders) which helped CSR Turkey to adapt CSR tools to other countries according to their needs and challenges. In last year, CSR Turkey, in partnership with MVO Netherland and Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation, implemented the Mainstreaming CSR Among SME’s” project in small and medium enterprises level. Lastly, CSR Turkey worked with Equiception in “the Giving Refugees a Voice” project funded by the C&A Foundation. The main aim of the project was to gather data about the terms and conditions of Syrian refugee workers and to find a way of incentivizing the regular employment of Syrian refugees so that they can be a productive and thriving part of a competitive textile and apparel value chain.
On the other hand, CSR Turkey contributes to both national and international development of CSR by implementing several CSR and CSR-related programs in Turkey, partnering with European, Black Sea and Middle East countries, exchanging ideas and realizing the capacity building activities in NGOs from different parts of world. CSR Turkey established CSR Black Sea Network which it is already a member of CSR Europe and co-founder of CSR Middle East.
1 - Human Rights in Business
Corporate Social Responsibility Association of Turkey had implemented its project “Human Rights in Business” in order to raise awareness “on the job human rights” issue like working conditions, working environment, women workers, working hours, child labor, labor rights, health-security-environment structures of working place. The project is generously supported by an alumni grant sponsored by the Embassy of the United States in Ankara, Turkey. The project aimed to prepare a guide book on “Human Rights in Business” covering what human rights are and how they are relevant to business and what business can do within their operations. Then the project group organized three separate panels in different provinces with stakeholders to tell how investment on human rights in business will convert to long productivity and profitability
2 - Mainstreaming CSR Among SME’s Project (2017)
Project aim to get familiar with the EU’s and EU countries Corporate Social Responsibility policies both in terms of legislation and implementation and to be prepared for the accession through strengthening the network and mutual exchange of experience between project partners. Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation, MVO Netherlands and CSR Turkey are the project partners. The objective of the project is to learn about EU policy and practices on social responsibility and support preparations for the EU accession process through strengthening the established collaborations.
3 - Respect Project (2011-13)
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) awareness and training studies, especially applied in the textile sector in recent years in Turkey, encourage suppliers in the sector to develop innovative solutions by developing different perspectives. At the beginning of the processes leading to responsible entrepreneurship, the vendors are responsible for following the responsible procurement policies of the brands and choosing the responsible ones when choosing the products. In this era where different stakeholder groups and collaborations are important, the Corporate Social Responsibility Association of Turkey is also part of an innovative project to promote responsible practices in clothing and footwear production: RESPECT
Supported by the European Union Leonardo da Vinci Program, the RESPECT project aims to improve the company’s supplier and procurement processes and to develop creative methods and tools for the buyer to improve the effects on labor standards. The two-year pilot project, which started in November 2011 and lasted until October 2013, aimed to produce different solutions by collaborating with stakeholders (buyer-supplier-consumer) and sharing good practices. The partners involved in this project are Switzerland, France and Belgium, which will transfer innovation to Bulgaria and Turkey as follows: Fair Labor Association, New Age, Gibor Alfa (Turkey), BILSP (Bulgaria), ESCEM (France) Social Responsibility Association, Limelight and MAC-Team (Belgium)
4 - Labour Standards in the Textile Industry
Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund (MDG-F) Joint Programme (JP) on “Harnessing Sustainable Linkages for SMEs in Turkey’s Textile Sector” is initiated and implemented by UN Agencies including UNDP, UNIDO, ILO and ITKIB. The programme aims to increase the international competitiveness of SMEs, support them to integrate national and global value chains and create decent work environment for both women and men in textile industry, particularly in vulnerable regions of Turkey. The project targets to upgrade the productivity and market access of companies as well as benefiting local disadvantaged communities in poor areas, including Central and South-eastern Anatolia. In this context the pilot provinces have been selected from the east and south east regions; Gaziantep, Malatya, Kahramanmaraş and Adıyaman.
5 - Refugees' Voice Project (2017)
The CSR Turkey and the Swiss-based Equiception are co-operating the prolonged "Refugee's Voice" project. The project goal is to determine the terms and conditions of work and number of Syrian refugee workers in the textile and garment value chain in Turkey. The aim of the project is to build a business alliance to use a technology platform to aggregate, compile and reflect what stakeholders say about human rights and workers' rights in the supply chain in real time on social networks. Once the social media questionnaire is completed, a report will be issued in both English and Turkish.
6 - Training for the future in CEE Countries (2010-12)
The project ‘Training for the Future in CEE countries’ aims to train the VET trainers of partner organizations and transfer practice oriented training for graduating classes, career-starter, trainees and company managers around the topic of sustainability with their assistance. The characteristic of the partnership is CEE based. All the partners are active in different CEE countries as vocational and adult trainer organization. The present innovation transfer project aims to import a new vocational training course in three new member states (Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey). The owner of the transferred training materials (Hungarian partner) is experienced in international project management and tested the training package in the framework of a previous Leonardo pilot project (Training for the Future). At the end of the project, national trainers developed their capacity in respect of CSR and practical tools, the young leaders had the chance to be in a Summer CSR academy which gave them a vision and will be beneficial in their future decision making in organizations. The CSR book is now a reference book in Turkey and used by key stakeholders.
7 - Robust Small Business (2013-)
Sağlam KOBI is a disaster preparedness initiative that has been developed in 2013. We deliver training of trainees, as well as coordinate working groups meetings and activities to acquire and share expertise and consultancy from the leading firms regarding their respective sectors. UPS, the World Economic Forum, the US Chamber of Commerce, and
Corporate Social Responsibility Association of Turkey (CSR-Turkey) have
developed a disaster preparedness initiative for small and medium size
enterprises, entitled “Business Disaster Resiliency Program forTurkey” or “Sağlam Kobi” in Turkish. The goal is to engage the private and public sector and civil society organizations to work together and identify best practices to enhance the resilience of small and medium sized enterprises (SME) in Turkey. Through this collective effort we aspire to provide SMEs with a suite of resources designed to assistbusinesses of all sizes. Businesses that only have a few minutes can access simple tips to prepare themselves and their staff for disasters, through reading the unique content on www.saglamkobi.com website, disaster preparedness checklist and 20 tips for preparedness.