AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard
Revision Process
The world's first standard for stakeholder engagement

In the AA1000 Framework Standard published in 1999, AccountAbility first introduced the principle of inclusivity. Inclusivity is the participation of stakeholders in developing and achieving an accountable and strategic response to sustainability. Stakeholder Engagement is a tool that organisations use to help them achieve inclusivity.

To support the achievement of inclusivity, guidance on how to design and conduct stakeholder engagement was included in the 1999 AA1000 Framework Standard. By 2005, this early guidance had evolved into the AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard, the first international standard on stakeholder engagement to be published.

This is the 2nd edition of the AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard. It builds on the revisions to the A1000 AccountAbility Principles Standard (2008) and on advances in engagement practice over the last five years.

The AA1000SES (2010) is now part of a suite of stakeholder engagement tools developed by AccountAbility. The suite of tools includes:

AA1000SE Standard – published as a set text and approved by the AccountAbility Stakeholder Engagement Technical Committee. It includes:

• Principles and requirements for quality stakeholder engagement;
• Guidance that clarifies and further explains the requirements.

AA1000SE Manual – published as a set text and developed by experts with support from broad public consultation. It includes:

• How to develop the case for stakeholder engagement;
• Step-by-step guidance, templates and worked examples for
• organisational engagement;
• project-based engagement; and
• public sector engagement.

AA1000SE WikiHub – a real-time, open-access collaborative database of useful information and guidance on stakeholder engagement developed and policed by stakeholders, with some moderation. At the outset it will include:

• A database of performance indicators that organisations have developed and used to evaluate the quality and value of stakeholder engagement;
• A database of worked examples and cases in three sections: organisations, projects and public sector;
• A resource of country and regional adaptations addressing the local context and dynamics;
• A resource of sector adaptations addressing sector specific issues and dynamics;
• A database on how AA1000SES relates to and can be used with other standards, codes and guidelines;
• A database of other relevant tools and approaches to stakeholder engagement.

The AA1000SES (2010) was developed using a broad-based, multi-stakeholder process. This began in 2006 when a year long pilot study was conducted using the 2005 edition of the AA1000SES. Feedback from the pilot program along with desk research on other initiatives and evolving practice, and the results of a widely broadcast e-survey were used to develop a preliminary draft of the revised standard. This draft was debated during face-to-face consultations in 20 countries with a comprehensive range of stakeholders. All of the input received was considered by the AccountAbility Stakeholder Engagement Technical Committee, which then prepared a revised draft standard for public review. There were three periods of public review of 60-90 days each. All public review took the form of collaborative drafting with full transparency using wiki software. Between each of these periods of public review and following the final period, the AccountAbility Stakeholder Engagement Technical Committee reviewed and revised the draft. The final draft was agreed by the AccountAbility Stakeholder Engagement Technical Committee and submitted to the AccountAbility Standards Board which approved it for publication.

The evolving nature of learning in the standards field means that the process of developing standards is ongoing. AccountAbility invites you to share your AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard experiences with us so that we can continue to improve the AA1000 Series.