Corporate Social Responsibility in the context of International Financial Institutions

The term Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is becoming more and more often spelled out in various contexts of the academic and corporate life. The concept of CSR is rather broad and the term CSR could be defined in various ways, as there has been no unified definition established so far. Yet the word ‘corporate’ in the term could indicate that CSR is exclusive matter of private companies. However, as demonstrated in this paper, the non-corporate institutions, in particular the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) are implementing CSR in their strategies as well. The paper provides an overview of different types of the CSR activities undertaken by the IFIs with the two main objectives; (i) to provide an insight into the CSR practices of the IFIs and (ii) to identify the main reasons why the IFIs are socially responsible and why are they promoting their social responsibility. As one of the conclusions of the paper, it is discovered that IFIs are by their CSR activities setting up an example and the best practices to be followed in this field, therefore they act as a responsible leader for both corporate and non-corporate organizations.