The Confederation of Citizen Enterprises of Tunisia (CONECT), in collaboration with its partners, organized on October 26, 2022, its 8th national conference on corporate social responsibility (CSR).

The objective of this 8th edition was to open the debate on the collective, local and regional perspectives that can promote an integration of the concerns of the various territorial actors. But also to converge their actions in favor of environmental preservation, promotion and support of green and circular entrepreneurship.

Thus, as part of the Cluster4Green project, implemented by the ENI CBC MED program and with the support of the EU, the CSR department of CONECT has the opportunity to carry out a program to support sustainable investment in order to promote responsible investment projects, create economic opportunities through the promotion of the circular economy. But also to see how state institutions, associations and NGOs as well as private companies

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the voluntary integration by companies of social and environmental concerns into their activities and their relations with stakeholders (internal, external, direct and indirect actors of the company). Broadly speaking, CSR is defined as the contribution of companies to the challenges of sustainable development.

Often referred to as an integration model to combine the objectives of economic, social and environmental development, CSR is concerned with installing within the company a sustainable relationship between stakeholders in order to have a positive impact on society while being economically viable, as recalled Mr. Tarak Cherif, President of CONECT in his welcoming remarks at the opening of the conference.

This conference was also an opportunity to open the debate on the concept of circular/green economy. This refers to an economic model whose objective is to produce goods and services in a sustainable way, limiting consumption and waste of resources and taking into account the social and economic impact of the company. The idea is to break with the linear economy model in favor of a sustainable model.

One thing is certain, today, the obvious link between CSR and the green economy is such that we cannot talk about a company's CSR policy without taking into account its operating mode, which is part of a sustainable development process.

This 8th conference focused on two panels. In a first panel entitled "CSR and the green and circular economy, for the benefit of sustainable development", were discussed, among other things, the issue of the CSR label, its impact on stakeholders, the requirements of financial institutions in terms of responsibility and impact of companies in the decision-making process of financing.

In a second panel entitled « Cluster4Green national sustainable investment frameworks: how to structure the support to responsible companies in Tunisia and the Mediterranean", the experts discussed the role of financial actors in the face of the challenges of mobilizing companies. While experts in climate change explained how climate issues must be integrated into the frameworks and support mechanisms for responsible business.