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 7

our approach

financial materiality

Stakeholder Engagement Main Page > Four Pillars > ​Effectiveness Criterion 6

6. Stakeholder-informed Action Plan

The company analyzes information obtained through affected stakeholder engagement and collaborates with rights holders to formulate an action plan. 

what this means

questions for portfolio companies

What to look for

High risk situations

Engagement processes will only succeed and add value for all parties if they have an impact on company decision making. To ensure follow through, companies should translate findings from engagement processes into clear action plans that faithfully reflect rights holder input. The action plans should clearly indicate tangible changes to their operations or project design in response to what they heard. Affected stakeholders want to know if their feedback was implemented and how the risks and impacts shared will be mitigated (IFC 2007, 87). Otherwise, the process will be perceived as insincere and the risk of project delays and protests may increase (TNFD 2023, 38; OECD 2017, 79).

A rights holder viewpoint
When the mining company operating in Peru first met with the community, community members had the impression that the engagement process was genuine. The company signaled openness and collaboration and community members saw them taking notes on what they said. However, the follow-up never came. Instead, unexpectedly the next contact was the arrival of trucks to begin the project. For the community, this abrupt shift signaled to them that their input did not shape project decisions. They felt dismissed.