Realising Corporate Accountability Robert Lloyd & Lucy de Las Casas Beyond CSR Conference London

1. Realising Corporate Accountability Robert Lloyd & Lucy de Las Casas Beyond CSR Conference London 22nd May 2006

2. Overview of Argument • Concerned with what accountability means in practice and how corporations can operationalise it • Situates this discussion within the context of current debates around corporate accountability • The current emphasis on enforceable regulation is important, as it creates the legal and financial incentives for accountability • However alone enforceable regulation will not realize accountability • The GAP framework provides an approach to operationalising accountability at the corporation level

3. Corporate Accountability Agenda • Stakeholder approach to accountability • Stakeholders need to be able to hold corporations to account • the “ability of those affected by corporations to control that corporation’s operations” (FoEI 2005) • “the ability of people affected by a corporation to regulate the activities of the corporation” (Bendell 2004) • Concerned with issues of power and empowerment • Emphasis is on enforcement through sanctions

4. What is GAP? • Stakeholder approach to accountability • High level principles of accountability • How to operationalise accountability • Cross sectoral learning the processes through which an organisation makes a commitment to respond to and balance the needs of stakeholders in its decision-making processes and activities, and delivers against this commitment

6. Limits to what regulation can achieve • It is essential, however: • In isolation promotes a limited form of accountability – reactive and disciplinary • A blunt instrument because accountability reform complex process • Current proposals relate to specific procedures and issues – needs a holistic approach

8. Discussion Questions • Can enforceable regulation alone make corporations accountable to their stakeholders? • What else is needed?