Exchange in Focus: The Tunis Stock Exchange publishes the ESG Reporting Guide
5 December 2021
The Tunis Stock Exchange recently launched its new ESG Disclosure Guidelines as a useful resource to aid issuing companies understand the context, characteristics and market best practices in environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) disclosures. The guidance has been made available to the general public and includes definitions, benefits of reporting ESG aspects, recommendations for preparing a sustainability report, standards, international methodologies and performance indicators. The intention is to ensure the guidelines remain relevant and can act as a catalyst supporting the sustainable and inclusive growth of the Tunisian capital market, for the benefit of all market participants.
“The Financial Market Council and the Tunis Stock Exchange are pleased to provide Tunisian companies with an ESG reporting guide. Convinced that the activities of companies generate consequences not only economic and financial but also extra-financial, and as the important place that ESG practices and reporting now occupy in investment decisions. The Tunis Stock Exchange joined the UN Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative in 2015 with a dual objective: to improve transparency in the face of environmental, social and governance issues and to encourage responsible financing for the long term.” said Bilel Sahnoun, CEO, Tunis Stock Exchange
This new ESG reporting guide is intended for directors, managers, and executives of listed companies, and for the company's stakeholders (statutory auditors, employee representatives, shareholders, investors), and more broadly for addressing the usefulness of the ESG approach to their community.
The Guide presents the principles promoted by the UN SSE initiative and explains the basic concepts and the usefulness of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) approach and ESG Reporting, as well as the practical recommendations for their implementation taking into account the companies own challenges and specificities.
In the document, a matrix of indicators is proposed for a progressive approach to sustainability reporting on ESG considerations. It is based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standard, the recommendations of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations, and its local version, the National Governance Framework (NGF) of Tunisia. The intention is to enrich the institutional framework of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development in Tunisia and pursues three main objectives which are all equally important and which cannot be dissociated:
Encourage the implementation of a structured corporate social responsibility approach based on a shared vision of value creation for the company as well as for its various stakeholders;Strengthen dialogue between the company and its stakeholders;Contribute to the production of non-financial information (in environmental, social, societal and governance matters) that is structured, relevant and comparable from one company to another.
Incorporating ESG practices into the way the financial ecosystem operates helps create an economically efficient and sustainable financial system that contributes to long-term value creation. The Tunis Stock Exchange has shown its responsibility to adopt international best practices, foster transparency of the Tunisian capital market and support the global effort to implement Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
For more information visit: www.bvmt.com.tn
SSE ESG Guidance Database
There are now 63 stock exchanges around the world that provide ESG disclosure guidance to their issuers. The SSE ESG Guidance Database contains a comprehensive list of all stock exchange ESG guidance documents in the world so that other stock exchanges can learn from their peers.About the SSE
The SSE initiative is a UN Partnership Programme organised by UNCTAD, the UN Global Compact, UNEP FI and the PRI. The SSE’s mission is to provide a global platform for exploring how exchanges, in collaboration with investors, companies (issuers), regulators, policymakers and relevant international organizations, can enhance performance on ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) issues and encourage sustainable investment, including the financing of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The SSE seeks to achieve this mission through an integrated programme of conducting evidence-based policy analysis, facilitating a network and forum for multi-stakeholder consensus-building, and providing technical assistance and advisory services.
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