The concept and importance of social audit for sustainable community development

Abstract

Social audit and social responsibility have become the focus of sustainable community development to address risk and sustainability challenges. Social audit involves an official review of the company's procedures and codes of conduct regarding social responsibility and community impact. Social audit involves assessing how many companies achieve sustainable development goals. In practice, an increasing number of accountants and auditors are faced with the notion of social auditing. It covers the analysis of non-financial aspects and business risks, both in the private and public sectors. This paper aims to highlight the importance and contribution of social audit through risk analysis, and environmental and social aspects for sustainable community development. The content and implementation of social audit have similar objectives as the financial audit of operations, but social audit is specifically and additionally focused on the performance and operation of organizations that are not necessarily financial in nature. Some elements of the implementation of the social audit process are increasingly present in the implementation of due diligence, but the social audit as a whole is still conducted separately. Social audit has an active and important role in achieving social responsibility and sustainable development.