The Call to Action Engage and Partner with People 04 Affected by Financial Products and Services 12 Meaningful stakeholder engagement is essential for respecting human rights. In a human rights context, this includes engaging with rights-holders who are currently or potentially affected, as well as their legitimate representatives, and expert organizations (e.g., trade unions, human rights defenders, and civil society organizations). Engaging stakeholders with firsthand knowledge of how a business may affect people— negatively or positively—is vital for due diligence to function and for business to succeed. Innovate FI stakeholder engagement. It may not always be practical for FIs to directly engage with impacted rights-holders. They Dutch Banking Sector Agreement on may be far removed from the impact of their Human Rights financial activities, as in the case of asset Banks participating in the Agreement owners and managers, or there may be no worked together with signatories actual adverse impacts to identify yet, which from civil society, trade unions, and may be the case for venture capital firms government toward meeting their human rights responsibilities. that invest in start-ups at the ideas stage. In these instances, FIs should be prepared to engage directly with impacted rights-holders where the opportunity arises, and proactively develop reasonable alternatives, such as engaging credible, independent expert resources, including human rights defenders and others from civil society to inform institutional understanding of human rights risks and how to manage them. Elevate stakeholder voice among clients and portfolio companies. Assess a company’s policies and practices regarding stakeholder engagement as well as the effectiveness of their grievance mechanisms to ensure understanding of what is happening on the ground. Use leverage with clients and portfolio companies to promote meaningful stakeholder engagement. Elevating stakeholder voice and perspectives in corporate governance of investee companies may also include reserving board seats for workers, promoting opportunities for employee ownership, and calling 13 for the creation of stakeholder advisory councils for boards. 23 HUMAN RIGHTS ROADMAP FOR TRANSFORMING FINANCE