We help companies shift out of a compliance and crisis driven approach to engagement to more systematic and integrated engagement that drives learning and innovation. We provide tailored support, for example by:

  • Developing stakeholder engagement strategy. We work with companies to develop an integrated strategy for stakeholder engagement that strengthens both their relationships with stakeholders and their internal decision making processes.

  • Facilitation of Stakeholder Dialogues. Accountability often acts as an honest broker and facilitator for stakeholder meetings. We can provide support through the planning, design, capacity building, facilitation and follow-up stages of stakeholder engagement to create processes that create change.

  • Building and facilitating stakeholder panels that support governance, reporting and reporting assurance.

  • Capacity building for stakeholder engagement. Engaging with stakeholders requires new skills and ways of thinking. We can provide tailored in-house training in stakeholder engagement, as well as ongoing mentoring support for leadership teams.

Our stakeholder engagement work is based on a suite of tools developed to support organisations implementing effective and inclusive stakeholder engagement approaches:

  • The AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard is a generally applicable, open-source framework for improving the quality of the design, implementation, assessment, communication and assurance of stakeholder engagement.

  • The Stakeholder Engagement Manual developed with UNEP and Stakeholder Research Associates provides step-by-step practical guidance at every stage of engagement.

  • The Materiality Framework developed with BT and LRQA provides the framework for a rigorous, workable and transparent process for prioritising and responding to issues raised by stakeholders.

Further research and best practise guidelines also look in more detail at stakeholder panels and responsible lobbying in engaging with governments.

Representative Client Work:

A global beverage retailer and manufacturer partnered with AccountAbility to facilitate multiple stakeholder engagements to help the company better understand and address key sustainability challenges. For example, AccountAbility helped the company to develop a collaborative approach and action plan for dealing with child labour in its global supply chain. This involved bringing together the company's senior management and experts from key stakeholder groups including civil society, sugar buyers and associations, bottlers and labour representatives.