Corporate Social Responsibility

The idea of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is new to Serbia.  As in many countries in transition, a history of nationalized industry, central planning, arbitrary bureaucratic interference, and widespread corruption cultivated distrust between the state and the private sector following the end of the socialist system.

Because Serbia implemented its political and socio-economic transition later than many other countries, many businesses still have little awareness of the benefits of socially responsible practices, seeing them as unprofitable or impractical, and many ordinary citizens do not take CSR into account when making purchases or going about their lives. Therefore, we are working with the business sector, the government, and the public to build cooperation and a better understanding of the advantages of CSR for society as a whole.

In order to promote CSR, we are working with our implementing partner organization Smart Kolektiv, which in 2008 established the Business Leaders Forum. The forum is Serbia's first coalition of socially responsible companies with a shared goal of promoting CSR and operating in a sustainable way to benefit the interests of the whole community.  All its members have volunteered to incorporate social, ethical, and ecological concerns into their work, and to cooperate with non-profit organizations, state institutions and other interested parties for the improvement of society.

According to Smart Kolektiv's executive director, Neven Marinovic, "We want to show that we have a business elite in the most positive and most generous sense. I hope Business Leaders Forum will serve as an inspiration to all companies, stimulate positive changes and promote the best practice in the improvement of business environment in society." 

In June 2009, Smart Kolektiv/Business Leaders Forum organized “Our Belgrade”, a day of volunteer actions around the city.  Hundreds of volunteers from the forum’s member companies came together for projects such as fixing up the building and grounds of a day care center/painting workshop for children with Down syndrome, working at a chess club for blind children, or taking Roma and other at-risk children to the zoo.  Others took boats out to Great War Island in the Sava River where they cleaned up the heaps of trash that had accumulated on the shore, and recycled plastic bottles.  With the overwhelming success of “Our Belgrade”, Smart Kolektiv hopes to organize similar events in the future.