Business Learning Program

A community of practice for companies committed to ensuring that respect for people’s human rights is at the heart of what they do.  

Participants of the Business Learning Program (BLP) benefit from Shift’s expert-driven peer-learning, advisory services, and support for meeting their responsibilities under the UNGPs and emerging legislation.

New due diligence and reporting laws require companies to make sure that respect for people’s rights is a core part of business strategy and operations. These laws are substantially aligned with international standards, including the UNGPs.

Shift is the world’s leading expert on the UNGPs, and in practical human rights due diligence that works for people and business. Through the BLP, Shift supports companies to fulfil their responsibilities in a meaningful and credible way.

Our expertise has been developed over more than a decade of working with some of the world’s largest companies to develop comprehensive and effective human rights due diligence. The insights we gather from working with companies to implement due diligence and reporting requirements guides the work we do to influence the laws and market incentives needed to scale business respect for human rights globally.

The BLP provides companies with a combination of one-on-one support, expert guidance, and peer-learning among leading practitioners. Through regular thematic exchanges, participants explore emerging challenges and share practical insights. Between sessions, Shift’s experts work with directly with participating companies to to build their internal capacity, develop tailored solutions to their unique challenges and embed respect for human rights within their culture, governance and decision-making processes.

Our Work Together

Shift supports BLP companies to:

• Build high quality due diligence and reporting programs that implement companies’ human rights responsibilities and legal requirements in a meaningful way.
• Identify and address the issues that matter most to impacted stakeholders.
• Embed the practices and behaviors that lead to the best results: for people and the business.

Companies that join the BLP:

• Have a proactive human rights due diligence program that is supported by company leadership.
• Engage in peer-learning by sharing real-world practices, successes and setbacks.
• Are part of a community of practice that is shaping the development and implementation of international standards and laws, helping find solutions to complex human rights challenges.

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Criteria for Admission

We are purposely selective about who we work with.

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Our Business Learning Program is a two-way street. We support companies as they build their capacity and systems. In turn, each engagement is an opportunity to expand our own knowledge and understanding of how the UNGPs are put into action.

That’s why we’re careful about who we partner with for the long term. We want to make sure that those who join are serious about taking action, open to exploring innovative approaches, and have the potential to make meaningful change happen.

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BOARD-APPROVED CRITERIA

1. Evidence of high-level commitment to business and human rights
   
2. Demonstrated organizational capacity to drive the implementation process
   
3. Support for our broader, mission-driven learning approach
   
4. Attention to conflicts with international legal standards.  In the context of our Business Learning Program, factors that typically lead to Shift deciding not to work with a company include:
   • a. The company’s products or services contravene international law prohibitions or conventions, e.g., the widely accepted ban on the production of cluster munitions.
   • b. The company expresses sustained opposition to respect for a certain human right or rights, e.g., freedom of association or the rights of LGBT individuals.
   • c. The company is connected to operations in the following types of territories where they are unable to demonstrate the ability and/or willingness to use appropriate leverage to address the impacts that arise:
     • (i) territories that are associated with credible allegations of international humanitarian law violations, where those operations are themselves connected to the allegations; and/or
     • (ii) territories which are non-self-governing and/or under occupation, where those operations raise legal issues regarding the self-determination of local populations or the risk of other gross human rights abuses.

Find out more

To learn more about Shift’s Business Learning Program and inquire about current availability, contact us at info [at] shiftproject [dot] org.

You can also visit our BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT page to learn more about other ways in which we work with companies and their stakeholders, and our Financial Institutions Practitioners Circle, which focuses on work with banks and export credit agencies.

Visit our CONTACT page to learn more about other ways to connect with Shift.

Current Participants