"4 Pillars and 7 Effectiveness Criteria of Stakeholder Engagement" 13 June 2025

Engagement with affected stakeholders lies at the heart of HREDD, but doing it well is complex. This Stakeholder Engagement Guide is designed to help investors evaluate how well their portfolio companies engage with affected stakeholders or rights holders - the people most at risk from business activities. Grounded in leading standards, it introduces four Pillars and seven Effectiveness Criteria.

Grounded in leading standards

An analysis of the following stakeholder engagement standards and the organization of their content into four pillars serve as the foundation for this Guide:
​✓ TNFD’s Guidance on Engagement with Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities and Affected Stakeholders (2023)
✓  OECD’s Due Diligence Guidance for Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement in the Extractive Sector (2017)
✓ AccountAbility's AA1000
 Stakeholder 
Engagement Standard (2015)
✓ IFC’s Stakeholder Engagement Guide: A Good Practice Handbook for Companies Doing Business in Emerging Markets (2007)