OECD Watch is undertaking an 18-month process to strengthen the network’s purpose and strategy. Join us as we engage our members, broader civil society, and other key stakeholders to sharpen our impact in the years ahead.
Assessing OECD Watch’s role in a changing landscape
The business and human rights field is shifting rapidly. The planet is hurtling towards a triple crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, with myriad associated human rights harms. At the same time, democracy and civic space are increasingly threatened. While more governments have been exploring or adopting binding legislation to regulate corporations’ value chain impacts, recent geopolitical shifts have prompted new hesitance and backsliding. Corporate accountability is more urgently needed than ever.
For two decades, the OECD Guidelines, due diligence guidance, and voluntary National Contact Point complaint system have played a valuable role. Using these tools, the network has helped build normative and government consensus on the imperative of responsible business conduct, clarify core concepts such as on remedy, stakeholder engagement, and due diligence, and expose diverse harms (still) committed with impunity. We have supported access to remedy. We have also built strong and trusting relationships with global civil society, governments, and intergovernmental organisations like the OECD to increase the access and impact of civil society around the world.
As the landscape evolves, we are reassessing our place within it:
- Amidst the vulnerable shift towards binding law, what contribution can international standards like the OECD Guidelines and due diligence guidance make to both communities and policymakers seeking remedy, legal reform, and better business conduct?
- How can civil society best leverage a relationship with the OECD, Guidelines-adhering governments, and other intergovernmental organisations to demand more inclusive, equitable, and values-driven economic policy?
- How can the OECD Watch network best work collectively and with partners to support civil society’s fight for global corporate accountability?
Implementing a staged consultation to strengthen our impact
From July 2024 to December 2025, OECD Watch is undertaking an extensive and inclusive process to evaluate our current impact and recalibrate our purpose and strategy for the future. We are being supported in this work by two consultants with expertise on impact and strategy renewal.
July-October 2024: Assessing current performance
We began with a “temperature check” to assess our current strengths and weaknesses on core elements, from membership engagement to administrative systems to impact on the field. Through a facilitated process, we incorporated input from members and our coordination committee to assess our performance against a set of ~75 evaluation indicators. The assessment pointed to various areas needing renewal, from our engagement of members and legal status, to our fundraising strategy and planning, monitoring, and evaluation system.
November 2024-May 2025: Exploring options for improvement
Next, we consulted extensively with our civil society members and partners, the OECD and governments, academics and unions, and other key stakeholders to identify options to strengthen our strategy, activities, and functioning as a global network. Through surveys, virtual and in-person focus group discussions, interviews, our April members Global Gathering in Istanbul, and a series of virtual follow-up consultations in May, we have sought diverse input to hone our impact for the future.
June-December 2025: Consolidating a path forward
Using our April Global Gathering as a key launch point, we will now enter into a decision-making process with our members, Coordination Committee, and host organisation (SOMO) to determine the reforms needed to strengthen our strategy and activities, our network structure, and our legal status and governance. We aim to finalise and adopt a proposal for renewal by October 2025, ensuring a fundraising effort that supports members’ vision for the future. We expect to conclude this renewal process as a more interconnected, internationally-led, and strategic coalition.
Join us
Are you a network member or other partner? We warmly invite you to weigh in on the network’s future shape and direction. You can provide your views in the following ways:
- May: Post-Global Gathering recap consultations with members: Please use the following registration links to sign up for the consultations:
- Tuesday 6 May, 15:00 CEST – Register here (English only)
- Thursday 8 May, Europe/CEST: 9:00 / Delhi, India: 12:30 / Bangkok, Thailand: 14:00 / Seoul, South Korea: 16:00 / Sydney, Australia: 17:00 – Register here (English only)
- Thursday 8 May, Europe/CEST: 14:00 / Accra, Ghana: 12.00 / Lagos, Nigeria: 13:00 / Nairobi, Kenya: 15:00 / Istanbul, Turkiye: 15:00 – Register here (English with French interpretation)
- Thursday 8 May, Mexico City, Mexico: 12.00 / Lima, Peru: 13:00 / New York, USA: 14:00 / Santiago de Chile, Chile: 14:00 / São Paulo, Brazil: 15:00 – Register here (English with Spanish interpretation)
- June/July: Discussions on renewal proposal with members and Coordination Committee on a proposal for an updated network structure, legal status, and 5-year strategy (2026-2030) (stay tuned…)
- September: Adoption and ratification of renewal proposal proposal by the Coordination Committee and members
Past events
- An open survey for members and partners gave all our stakeholders an opportunity to weigh in on the network’s past impacts, future challenges, and next steps (open from November 2024 into January 2025).
- A civil society working dinner in Geneva, at the margins of the UN Business & Human Rights Forum, enabled in-person dialogue with members and partners from around the world on the network’s impact, challenges, and next steps (held in November 2024).
- Several virtual focus groups accommodating OECD Watch members and partners in different timezones provided opportunity for further reflection on needed activities across regional and thematic topics (held in December 2024).
- Approximately 25 interviews with key stakeholders honed in on questions around our impact and strategy, as well as our legal status and governance (undertaken between December 2024 and March 2025).
- Our Global Gathering was a particularly key moment to present the findings of our strategy and governance review thus far, and seek guidance on how to improve. At the Gathering, members strongly endorsed the bridge role OECD Watch plays between and among cigil society, governments, and the OECD, and urged OECD Watch to do more to support global civil society collaboration.
- Read our Global Gathering Conference Report here.
