Promoting Corporate Responsibility In Albania

Albania has recovered well from the impacts of war in neighbouring Kosovo, and has shown steady economic growth since the late 1990s. The country is taking active steps towards accession to the European Union, but is held back by lack of political reform and concerns over corruption.

One initiative seeking to contribute to improving Albania’s external image and the transparency of the business sector is the United Nations Global Compact. The Global Compact is designed to help advance sustainable business models and markets through the development, implementation and disclosure of sustainability practices. Operational since 2005, the Global Compact Local Network Albania has 16 members from business, civil society, academia and government.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Albania works closely with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Energy (METE) to host the secretariat of the UN Global Compact, and Integrity was recently contracted to support the management of the network and increase companies’ active participation. Integrity developed a set of national-level indicators to track annual progress against corporate responsibility objectives. The indicators were discussed at a multi-stakeholder forum on CSR in April 2012, and will be finalised through stakeholder consultation over the summer.

Posted by Kate Ives, Head of Stakeholder Engagement and lead on Corporate Social Responsibility