Introduction to corporate engagement
The workshop started with a short presentation by Nada van Schouwenburg and Mariana Chavez Sanchez of Women Win. They presented the background and work of Women Win, and shared concrete examples of how they engage with corporate actors, from bridging the gap between women’s rights organisations and companies in the agrifood sector in Eastern Africa to working with companies to apply a gender lens in Human Rights Due Diligence. Based on their experience, Women Win developed a 7 Stage Process of Pre-Corporate Engagement. This process starts with internal assessment, after which a reason to partner should be defined. The third stage is analysing the landscape, followed by guiding principles and due diligence. The fifth stage explores the unique value proposition, and the sixth stage is performing a risk analysis. Lastly, it is important to set smart goals and to action plan.
Lego Serious Play
After the presentation, the Legos were put to use. We started building a model that represents our own organisation. We thought about the design of our structure, how corporate engagement looks like in our model, and what place our non-negotiables have in our construction. We also considered our own individual place in our model organisation. Through this exercise, many different designs came about. We talked about the meaning of these designs, and the placement of corporate engagement and the non-negotiables. Several similarities were found between the models. The corporate brick, for example, was small and uncertain and participants were unsure where to place it. On the other hand, the non-negotiables were generally seen as a central part of the structure and corporate engagement was also often placed at the base, at the core of the designs. Next to that, the participants agreed that the companies they work with should match their values and that partnerships with the corporate sector should be related to their core activities and be beneficial to their stakeholders.
Apart from similarities, some differences were also noticeable between the designs. There were different levels of engagement; some were more experienced, and others were just starting. Participants were in different stages of their corporate engagement journey. The objectives also differed.
Non-negotiables
The presentation and the Lego exercises sparked a discussion on the non-negotiables. A lot of the non-negotiables identified by the participants were based on values. This raised the question how flexible you need to be on your values when engaging with corporate actors, and what you should stick to. Women Win emphasised that this is why the first stage of their corporate engagement process is so important: having internal conversations and assessment on this. Corporate engagement might not be a good fit for every NGO, depending on their values and focus of work. It is also important to show corporate actors what value you can bring to the partnership as an NGO. Women Win shared that they only go into partnerships when they feel they can affect a change with their corporate partner. They also make sure they are transparent to the women’s rights organisations they work with about where the money comes from, so that they can decide whether they want to join or not. At the same time a lot of partnerships start transactional, as a funding opportunity. Over time this could evolve into something more transformational, but this isn’t always the case.
Learn more and share your input
At the end of the play, participants said that it was a fun way of thinking about their organisation, and that it went deeper than they thought. This workshop served as an introduction to building impactful partnerships with the private sector. If you are interested to learn more, have a look at Women Win’s Online Corporate Engagement introductory course introductory course.
There is a clear need for practical corporate engagement support within the Dutch civil society. Furthermore, Women Win is exploring how they can further support organisations in this, for example through a training curriculum. Therefore, they need your input in order to design a programme that addresses your needs and financial capabilities. Please take 5 minutes to fill out our quick feedback survey.
If you want to know more about Women Win’s offer, please contact Nada van Schouwenburg for more information: n.vanschouwenburg@womenwin.org.