The Stakeholder Engagement Manual Volume 2 - AccountAbility

Introduction
OPENING NOTE
The Stakeholder Engagement
Manual, consisting of this
“Practitioner’s Handbook on
Stakeholder Engagement” and
its sister volume: “The Guide
to Practitioners’ Perspectives
on Stakeholder Engagement”
(Stakeholder Research Associates)
are the result of UNEP’s interest
in producing a best practice guide
to stakeholder engagement, with
the broader aim of promoting the
use of stakeholder engagement
worldwide as a way of advancing
sustainable development goals.
Welcome to this handbook, which
provides practical guidance, advice
and signposts for further information
to those interested in how to make
stakeholder engagement more eff ective
and benefi cial for the organisation
and its stakeholders. Whilst Volume
1, "Th e Guide to Practitioners'
Perspectives", provides engagement
practitioners with an overview of the
perspective of various stakeholders
on stakeholder engagement, this
Practitioner’s Handbook – Volume 2
of the manual – is aimed primarily at
corporate practitioners. In addition,
large portions of this Handbook may
also be of use to practitioners from
any other type (i.e. non-business)
of organisation. Th e hope is that a
wide spectrum of users can take it
up and adapt its recommendations
to their own circumstances. As with
all research projects of potentially
widespread applicability, the initiative
for Th e Stakeholder Engagement
Manual grew from a simple
proposition. Participants in UNEP’s
Annual Consultative Meeting with
Industry Associations, of October
2002, requested guidance on how
to engage in meaningful dialogue
with stakeholders. UNEP began its
exploration by surveying nearly two
dozen leading corporations in order
to understand the main engagement
approaches they used and the major
constraints they faced. Th is research
revealed that the issues at stake
diff er across stakeholder groups and
highlighted the need to understand
stakeholder engagement from multiple
perspectives, including those of nongovernmental
organisations, labour
unions and trade associations. Th is
sparked a series of additional research
interviews with an international
selection of senior representatives from
various organisations, which formed
the basis for Volume 1.
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