Governments have an important role

Governments have an important role to play in Social Responsibility, and many government
organizations are making significant advances in this field. For this reason, the idea of a
workshop was born out of the Government Stakeholder Group, one of six stakeholder groups
working within the ISO 26000 Working Group on Social Responsibility, to develop a space
for reflection and sharing on the Role of Government in Social Responsibility.
The organization of this Government Stakeholder Group workshop, as well as the publication
of its proceedings, was made possible thanks to the most valuable efforts and support of the
2 Government Agencies co-hosting this meeting, namely the Austrian Federal Ministry of
Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management and the Chilean Ministry of Labour.

The objectives we identified for the seminar were the following:
• Address the changing role of governments in relation to other actors in the era of
globalization.
• Provide a space of reflection on how governments can, and have already, contributed
to the objective of sustainable development through SR, both in the form of public
policy, regulation, financing and initiatives in their own operations.
• Share experiences from governments and other public institutions that have implemented
some form of CSR, or SR, in their objectives and operations.
• Discuss emerging fields of research dedicated to advance the various
points of view on this topic