The Accountability Framework comprises the Core Principles, Operational Guidance, and definitions.
Achieving Commitments Through Collaboration
Guidance on how companies can collaborate with other stakeholders in the landscapes, jurisdictions, and sectors in which they operate to meet their commitments. This collaboration should address social and environmental issues beyond the company’s control, as well as contribute to broader and longer-lasting positive impacts in the key landscapes where commodities are produced or sourced.
Applying the Definitions Related to Deforestation and Conversion
Guidance on how the Accountability Framework’s definitions related to deforestation and conversion should be applied in practice. It includes a Q&A and illustrative examples that demonstrate how to apply these definitions in different contexts and what their relationship is to definitions found in other standards, policies, and resources.
Cutoff Dates
Guidance on how companies should select cutoff dates for their no-deforestation and no-conversion commitments. This includes guidance for complex sourcing scenarios, such as companies that source multiple commodities from multiple different regions, as well as guidance related to sector-wide cutoff dates.
Environmental Restoration and Compensation
Guidance on how to conduct restoration and/or compensation when environmental harms have occurred in company operations or supply chains.
The companion Operational Guidance on Remediation and Access to Remedy details appropriate remedy for social harms and includes information on company grievance mechanisms.
Free, Prior, and Informed Consent
Guidance outlining company best practice in securing the free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in operations and supply chains. The guidance builds upon existing resources to distil essential and common elements of FPIC and clarifies how companies can approach key challenges in the implementation of FPIC processes.
Monitoring and Verification
Guidance on how to conduct monitoring and independent verification of commitments to no-deforestation, no-conversion and human rights, following recognised norms and good practice. It focuses on performance and outcomes at the supply base level.
Remediation and Access to Remedy
Guidance on how companies can ensure proper access to remedy and remediation of human rights harms in their supply chains and operations, including the use of grievance mechanisms. The companion Operational Guidance on Environmental Restoration and Compensation details appropriate remedy for deforestation and ecosystem conversion.
Reporting, Disclosure, and Claims
Guidance on reporting progress and compliance related to deforestation, conversion, and human rights commitments. It includes information on public reporting methodologies, transparency through information disclosure, and the characteristics required to make robust claims on progress towards commitments.
Respecting the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities
Guidance on the scope of company responsibilities to respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. The guidance details how to identify impacts to these rights and the actions required to ensure they are respected. It includes actions specific to upstream suppliers and downstream buyers in the supply chain.
Smallholder Inclusion in Ethical Supply Chains
Guidance on how companies can effectively engage smallholders in their supply chains in a mutually beneficial manner. This includes providing benefits and positive incentives to smallholders while enabling companies to fulfil their supply chain commitments and secure adequate volumes of responsibly produced commodities.
Supply Chain Management
Guidance for buyers at any stage of the supply chain on effective supplier management approaches to achieve ethical supply chains. It focuses on traceability of raw material origins, assessment of risk, and supplier engagement to support compliance with company commitments. It also details how to address instances of supplier non-compliance.
Voluntary Commitments and Applicable Law
Guidance on how the implementation of voluntary commitments relates to international and national legal requirements. It includes details on how to design effective procedures to identify and assess applicable law associated with the topics within the scope of the Accountability Framework.
Workers’ Rights
Guidance on ensuring respect for workers’ rights in the context of company operations and supply chains. It elaborates on each of the workers’ rights provisions listed in Core Principle 2.3, including a summary of what each provision entails, best practice for implementation, and links to external resources for support.