Responsible Business

CDA helps companies to improve their social impacts, support development in communities they affect, and operate in ways that strengthen their relationships with those communities. CDA works on a bi-lateral partnership basis with individual companies, and also works in multi-stakeholder initiatives to advance public understanding of corporate social impacts and their mitigation. CDA is a thought leader on business and conflict issues and has authored or contributed to influential guidance, such as the UN Global Compact’s Guidance on Responsible Business in Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas and IPIECA’s Creating Successful, Sustainable Social Investment, and the Preventing Conflict in Exploration tool. Current collaborative learning efforts explore the role of companies in peacebuilding efforts and in the Sustainable Development Goals.

CDA’s work on Responsible Business began in 2000 with the launch of the Corporate Engagement Project (CEP). CEP performed 16 asset-level field assessments around the world between 2000-2009, primarily with extractive industries companies. These included over 2000 individual and group consultations with company managers and staff, local community members and leaders, opposition groups, NGOs, government officials, religious groups and other stakeholders, culminating in the publication of the book Getting It Right: Making Corporate-Community Relations Work. CDA was involved in the mandate of the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights and participates in the development of guidance through various multi-stakeholder initiatives. CDA also works with industry associations such as the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada and IPIECA to develop stakeholder engagement and risk mitigation guidance.

CDA is currently engaged in a learning project about the impacts of private sector companies and business associations on peace, in partnership with the Africa Centre for Dispute Settlement at the University of Stellenbosch and the Peace Research Institute Oslo.