ADVISORY

Improving Operational Grievance Mechanisms

Access to a grievance redress mechanism helps ensure that community concerns about projects can be raised and resolved before they escalate to the point of conflict and impact project sustainability. A challenge for companies is ensuring their grievance mechanisms are designed to be effective, trusted, and fit-for-purpose.

CAO issued guidance on this topic in 2017 building on previous advisory work. CAO’s new Grievance Mechanism Toolkit is an online practical guide to help companies design and implement effective operational grievance mechanisms. It draws on CAO case experience, as well as external expertise and inputs from World Bank Group staff.

CAO is working to promote uptake of the toolkit, conducting a training for MIGA this year, who report that staff and clients are finding the toolkit useful. CAO also provided training on the toolkit to private sector companies and civil society organizations in West Africa in collaboration with the African Development Bank’s accountability mechanism. In the context of business and human rights, CAO contributed to discussions on access to remedy and effective grievance redress at the third regional consultation for Latin America and the Caribbean on the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles in Chile. CAO also discussed the toolkit at the UN Business and Human Rights Forum in Geneva.

CAO’s toolkit is available in English, French, and Spanish at www.cao-ombudsman.org/grm.