Stakeholder Engagement

In 2021 the RBA continued its active engagement with key stakeholders, including nongovernmental organizations, civil society organizations, socially responsible investors, public buyers, and governmental and multilateral institutions.

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2021 INCLUDED:

• Signed terms of engagement with Electronics Watch to establish a process to facilitate effective collaboration, with the goal of improving compliance with relevant labor regulation and internationally recognized codes and worker rights standards for factories that make products for public buyer affiliates of Electronics Watch. • Continued to engage public buyers and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on the increasing use of responsible business conduct measures for public procurement, encouraging the use of RBA tools for procurement purposes. • Launched an RBA investors dialogue series, featuring discussions with key representatives from the investor community on how the RBA can help investors and RBA members meet responsible business challenges in global supply chains. • Hosted an RBA stakeholder roundtable on responsible IT procurement in the Nordics, convening key private and public buyers to discuss trends and developments in the area of responsible IT procurement. • Continued to engage benchmarks, including Know the Chain (KTC) and the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB), to provide input into their benchmark methodologies. • Published an RBA Statement in Support of Human Rights Defenders. • Published the RBA Practical Guide to Responsible Sourcing of

Goods and Services, which maps standard procurement steps to appropriate RBA tools and resources, to help give buyers confidence the products they procure from RBA members are made in socially and environmentally responsible ways.