Navigating Portfolio Exposure to Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas: Practical Guidance for Investor Engagement with Companies

Amid a steady increase in the number and intensity of global conflicts and associated human rights harms, investors are seeking guidance on how to manage portfolio exposure to conflict-affected and high-risk areas (CAHRA). To that end, the Investor Alliance for Human Rights launched, with partners Heartland Initiative and PeaceNexus Foundation, the Investor Engagement on Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas Pilot Project and are pleased to share a new report detailing its findings. The 18-month project sought to build the capacity of institutional investors to engage portfolio companies in the tech and renewable energy sectors on how to address CAHRA-related risks in their operations and value chain relationships. 

The report, Navigating Portfolio Exposure to Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas: Practical Guidance for Investor Engagement with Companies, is a practical, rights-based contribution to the limited guidance currently available for investors seeking to take a systemic approach to managing CAHRA risks across their portfolios and to those companies pursuing better policies, practices, and governance measures in response to today’s volatile geopolitical landscape.

Specifically, the report offers three sets of learnings:

• practical guidance on how investors can identify, assess, and prioritize CAHRA risks in their portfolios, including by addressing the intersections between salient human rights impacts and material financial risks 

• practical guidance to enhance investor-company interactions on CAHRA-related risks
• promising practice and lessons learned from a series of corporate dialogues with tech and renewable energy companies, highlighting emerging policies, practices, and governance measures to address CAHRA-related risks and associated gaps and challenges

Read the full report here.

We prepared standalone versions of the report's Executive Summary and Engagement Questions for your reference and use.

Watch the webinar for the report launch here: