May 15, 2007 – IFC launches a new IFC publication, “Stakeholder Engagement: A Good Practice Handbook for Companies Doing Business in Emerging Markets.” The Handbook draws on IFC’s own learning as well as the current thinking and practices of our client companies and other institutions to provide the good practice “essentials” for building and sustaining constructive relationships over time as a means of risk mitigation, new business identification, and enhancing development outcomes.

The Handbook reflects advances in thinking about the centrality of stakeholder engagement to all other aspects of environmental and social performance, and the link between good stakeholder relations and good risk management. Over thirty case examples from private sector operations across regions and sectors illustrate various aspects of the engagement process, including stakeholder identification and analysis; information disclosure; consultation processes; negotiation and partnerships; grievance management; monitoring and reporting; and management functions. In addition to providing practical guidance on key concepts and principles, the publication helps clients work out how these approaches can be implemented at each phase of the project cycle from concept and planning, through construction and operations, to divestment, downsizing, and decommissioning.

The Handbook offers new and detailed guidance in a number of areas, including gender, indigenous peoples, grievance mechanisms, sustainability reporting, management functions, and the integration of stakeholder engagement activities with core business processes. The publication will be made available in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic and Russian as of July 2007 to facilitate use by our regional offices and clients.

To download this publication go to: www.ifc.org/enviropublications.