Many thanks for your letter of 22 October 2013 regarding the Reporting and Assurance Frameworks Initiative...We value your feedback and the questions and concerns you raise. Comments such as these are critical to ensuring that the project avoids the many potential pitfalls in this challenging area... Because your letter also raised broader strategic questions, we discussed it at the recent meeting of the Shift Board, which I chair. I have been tasked to send this response so as to clarify how various pieces that are currently in play in the business and human rights space relate to one another, as we see it. In doing so, I also draw on multiple consultations the project team has held in recent weeks in Medellin, London, New York, Jakarta and Bangkok.