Home Governments Series - Innovative New Approaches

This Report reviews how select countries have developed innovative new approaches to incentivise responsible business conduct by extractive companies operating abroad and disincentivise conduct that undermines environmental, social, human rights and good governance standards.

The Report highlights measures across a range of intitiatives, such as the Canadian Strategy on Corporate Social Responsibility in the Extractive Sector, the Dutch Special Envoy for Natural Resource, the Chinese Guidelines for Social Responsibility in Outbound Mining Investments, the Dutch Sector Risk Analysis and Sector Convenant for the Oil and Gas Sector, the Australian Good Practice Handbooks for Sustainable Mining and the Norwegian Oil for Development Programme and the Chines Green Credit Guidelines.

About this Report Series

This Report is the fourth in a series reviewing measures that ‘home governments’ (where companies are legally registered) can use to incentivise responsible business conduct of extractive companies operating abroad. ‘Host governments’ (where the company is operating) have the primary responsibility to regulate the activities of businesses operating in their territory. But where such regulation is lacking or not enforced, clear incentives set by their home governments can provide one of the few avenues for prompting responsible business conduct.

The examples provided in this report series can serve as models for policy makers charged with regulating the extractive or other sectors with similar footprints, provide civil society and other stakeholders with information about tools for promoting greater corporate accountability, and stimulate further debate on the efficiency and effectiveness of such measures.

Image: Flickr/Parolan Harahap