Embed in management systems

1. Embedded commitment: The company has a policy commitment to ongoing stakeholder engagement, and embeds it in its governance, culture, and management strategy.​

Create a Tailored Engagement Plan​

2. Inclusiveness: The company listens to a full range of rights-holders across the value chain and has a process to identify legitimate representatives.
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3. A Focus on Those Most at Risk​:  The company prioritizes engaging with the rightsholders who are most likely to be harmed by its operations​, and therefore where early engagement is critical.​​

Conduct appropriate  activities

​​4. Informed Participation: The company establishes ongoing, two-way communication with affected rights holders that provides affected stakeholders with relevant critical information well in advance of key decision points.

5. Trust and Accountability: The company establishes procedures, tailored to the context, to build rights holder trust and accountability for its actions.​

Ensure follow through

6. Stakeholder-informed Action Plan: The company analyzes information obtained through affected stakeholder engagement and collaborates with rights holders to formulate an action plan.

7. Monitoring, Transparency, and Continuous Improvement​: The company establishes and maintains a transparent and stakeholder-informed monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system.​

effectiveness criterion 5

our approach

financial materiality

Stakeholder Engagement Main Page > Four Pillars > ​Effectiveness Criterion 4

4. Informed Participation

The company establishes ongoing, two-way communication with affected rights holders that provides relevant critical information well in advance of key decision points.

what this means

questions for portfolio companies

What to look for

for workers

High risk situations

Informed participation through two-way communication enables companies to proactively identify risks, clarify misunderstandings with rights holders, and adapt strategies to the local context. By providing information early and regularly, rights holders – including workers and their representatives – can raise and resolve concerns in a timely and cost-effective manner. Moreover, companies need to have good relations with affected stakeholders such that they know who to contact when problems arise, and a stakeholder-informed process to handle sensitive information.

A rights holder viewpoint
When company representatives arrived at a consultation at their Brazil operations with a 200-page technical report, community members described feeling overwhelmed as well as excluded. While they wanted the technical and legal information, the company didn’t provide it in a way that they could make sense of.