Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) participated in the Second Annual United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights...The primary focus for CALS on 2 December 2013, the pre-forum day, was to attend the regional dialogue for Africa and the stakeholder pre-forum session convened for and by UN Member States...CALS was invited to attend the stakeholder pre-forum session for States. This provided an opportunity for several States, Western European Governments in particular, to share their experiences and progress thus far in implementing the UN Guiding Principles through national plans of action...States participating in the caucus emphasised the importance of proper consultations with all relevant stakeholders, including civil society organisations and trade unions, during the development of a national action plan and the need to allocate adequate financial resources for its implementation once adopted...Bonita Meyersfeld, CALS Director, chaired the Public Finance: Applying the UN Guiding Principles to state-owned financial institutions, a multi-stakeholder panel which considered the ways in which the three pillars of the UN Guiding Principles apply in practice to state-owned financial institutions...In 2014 CALS will implement the UN Working Group mandated project on National Action Plans, working in collaboration with local and international bodies.