Workshop
Effectiveness and Evidence in Due Diligence Capacity Building: A peer-learning workshop for practitioners
ORGANIZED BY
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, United Nations Development Programme
What makes capacity building on due diligence effective? Working in facilitated groups, participants discuss this question together, structured around a short set of claims to test. There are no panels, and no presentations beyond a short opening framing: the material of the session is the participants' own experience.
What practical challenge will the workshop tackle
Capacity building is central to how due diligence expectations lead to changes in behaviour and practice. However, evidence on which approaches produce sustained change is limited, and the practical knowledge that does exist is dispersed among practitioners.
Who should attend
Practitioners who build capacity on due diligence and/or responsible business conduct (RBC) for at least one target audience, including companies, governments, business associations, workers’ organisations, and civil society organisations. Two things are required: experience with capacity building on due diligence and/or RBC, and a commitment to actively participate.
Overview
What makes capacity building on due diligence and RBC effective? Working in facilitated groups, participants discuss this question together, using examples of programmes they know first-hand (including their own) and have chosen to bring to the session. The discussion is structured around a short set of questions to debate, drawing on the personal knowledge and experience of participants.
Background
Demand for capacity building on due diligence and RBC has never been higher, and supply is expanding with it. Capacity building is central to how due diligence expectations can lead to changes in behaviour and practice, though evidence on which approaches produce sustained change is limited in the field of RBC. What the field does have, today, is practitioners' first-hand experience.
Activities
The session combines peer exchange, facilitated discussion, and collective reflection. Participants will draw on first-hand experience with capacity building, including programmes or initiatives they have designed, delivered, or commissioned. Working in small groups, they will debate a short set of questions concerning what makes due diligence and RBC capacity building effective, exploring factors that enable or hinder lasting changes in practice. The exact format and discussion process will be explained during the session. Insights from group discussions will be brought together in a final plenary reflection.
What participants will gain
A comparison of how peers across the region make due diligence capacity building stick: the ingredients, delivery approaches, resources and follow-up involved, and how change could be measured;
Programme assumptions, participants' own included, tested against a mixed room of practitioners;
An overview of ideas for making capacity building more effective, to take home and hold their own work against.
Harpreet Kaur
Asia-Pacific Lead: Business and Human Rights, United Nations Development Programme
Dr. Harpreet Kaur leads UNDP's Business and Human Rights portfolio across 17 countries in Asia-Pacific. With over two decades of experience spanning multilateral institutions, government, academia and civil society, she works with governments, businesses, investors and development partners on responsible business conduct, human rights due diligence, sustainable investment and supply chain governance.
Harpreet's work focuses on translating international standards and emerging regulatory expectations into practical approaches that strengthen accountability, manage risk and support more inclusive and sustainable markets. Her expertise spans business and human rights, labour standards, gender equality, technology governance and responsible investment.
She also leads the Secretariat of the UN Responsible Business and Human Rights Forum, a leading regional platform bringing together governments, businesses, investors, civil society and trade unions to advance responsible business policy and practice across Asia-Pacific.
Before joining UNDP, she held roles with the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, the Genpact Centre for Women's Leadership at Ashoka University, BBC Media Action and the Government of India. She holds a PhD in Anthropology and qualifications in human rights law, and is a certified SA8000 Auditor. She has served on the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Human Rights and maintains academic affiliations with the University of Bergen and Macquarie University.
Kevin Lehmann
Policy Analyst, Capacity Building, OECD Centre for Responsible Business Conduct
Kevin Lehmann is a Policy Analyst at the OECD Centre for Responsible Business Conduct. His work revolves around capacity building on due diligence and responsible business conduct. Prior to joining the OECD, Kevin was based in Bangkok for five years, working on business and human rights issues across Asia and the Pacific.