Everyone has the opportunity to participate and engage meaningfully in the decisions that affect their neighbourhoods and lives. This includes women, children, minorities, migrants, refugees, indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, older persons and others whose perspectives are often excluded.
Guiding questions
Have you identified the people who will be impacted by the project, with an emphasis on the most vulnerable? Has this analysis included a clear focus on intersectionality across demographic characteristics (see "All human rights standards are upheld")?
Have you developed a community engagement process which will support you to engage with community stakeholders from the outset, throughout, and beyond completion of the project in an effective manner? This should include an analysis of the context and of the systemic barriers which may prevent participation by certain groups, and solutions to overcome them; sharing information in accessible, understandable formats; providing informed consent to any identified risk and mitigation measures; and monitoring how the relevant groups are experiencing the process.
Is there clarity about who has ultimate decision-making power over the outcomes of the project, and are there opportunities to expand local communities' ability to shape the outcomes of the project, for example through governance structures and new business models?
Are there effective feedback, grievance, recourse, mediation, dispute resolution and remediation mechanisms in place for all affected stakeholders? Are these mechanisms accessible, culturally appropriate, safe and confidential, and adequately resourced? Have diverse communities been involved in designing them?
Stories and illustrative examples
International standards and tools
The right to participation, as referred to in international standards, see appendix
"Equal Participation in political and public affairs"
Access to remedy, UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights
Equator Principle 5: Stakeholder Engagement
Sustainable Development Goals:
- Target 11.3: By 2030, enhance inclusive and sustainable urbanization and capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management in all countries
- Target 16.7: Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels
- Target 5.5: Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life