AccountAbility today launched a new, step-by-step guide to stakeholder engagement: The Practitioner's Handbook on Stakeholder Engagement.

This handbook, developed in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and consultancy Stakeholder Research Associates, is intended for corporate responsibility practitioners and professionals in corporate affairs, human resources, risk management and related fields.

It provides clear and practical guidance on how to approach each of the five key stages of the stakeholder engagement process:

1.   Setting strategic objectives and prioritising stakeholders
2.   Planning and preparing the engagement
3.   Developing the capacities to engage, both of the organisation and its stakeholders
4.   Designing an engagement process
5.   Following-up, evaluating outputs and assuring quality

The handbook also offers specially developed tools and templates for each stage as well as real-life case studies and advice from practitioners around the world.

The Practitioner's Handbook on Stakeholder Engagement is the second of a two volume series. The first volume, Practioners' Perspectives on Stakeholder Engagement provides an in-depth examination of the stakeholder engagement process and its opportunities and challenges, based on the international experiences of over 80 practitioners.

Copies of both documents can be downloaded from:
www.accountability.org.uk/semanual/
www.unep.fr/outreach/home.htm or www.StakeholderResearch.com.