CCE Resources

Tools & Methods

In pursuing CCE, Pact focuses on community and stakeholder engagement, key social development issues relevant in that community context, and ways in which business can productively be engaged in advancing social development through its core operations, skills and networks, and broader social investments. The two foundations of all of Pact's tools and approaches described in this section are:

• Participatory methods
• Capacity building approaches

Tools & Methodologies include:

Due Diligence
Risk and Opportunity Assessment
Stakeholder Mapping and Issues Analysis
Insight to Action (I2A)
Engagement to Action (E2A)
Organizational Capacity Assessment (OCA)

Due Diligence
Pact has developed an extensive due diligence process to help identify the opportunities and risks of a new relationship. The process begins with desktop research, which is followed by field-based research. The review analyzes a company's written policies and its on-the-ground record against industry best practice and global standards and voluntary codes of conduct. The results of the review serve as a basis for decisions about working with a specific company, priorities for the relevant activities and social development objectives to be pursued, how any risks will be mitigated and managed, and what terms are appropriate to include in working agreements to ensure good attention to the social development goals and areas of specific concern. Our due diligence is a dynamic process that continues through the life of the relationship.

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Risk and Opportunity Assessment
Pact's risk and opportunity assessment is a powerful tool to help an organization make informed decisions about new opportunities and relationships. The tool considers the context, such as the country and industry context, and the extent to which specific risks are inherent. The tool also considers specific actors and their record of performance across their activities locally and globally. Areas of risk and opportunity that emerge in the analysis as more significant are then targeted for more in-depth attention in subsequent discussions with stakeholders, additional research and due diligence, and often these areas are given central attention in agreements. In summary, the risk and opportunity assessment tool helps highlight the big-picture issues and specific risks and opportunities that need attention within a CCE relationship to ensure activities can be productive in advancing social development outcomes.

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Stakeholder Mapping and Issues Analysis
Many times a corporation needs specific advice on key social aspects and implications of their business or community strategy. The dilemma is to identify credible representatives who can give accurate and informed feedback. Pact has broad networks and active relationships with civil society, NGO, business and government officials throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe and methodologies for mapping stakeholders. Pact's assistance in stakeholder mapping and issues analysis has helped some companies better understand the full range of stakeholders and identify outreach and engagement str ategies that help them manage the risk of new corporate ventures more effectively.

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Insight to Action (I2A)
INSIGHT to ACTION (I2A) is a 3-day seminar which brings companies and NGOs together in a dynamic process designed to build understanding, stimulate dialogue and initiate partnerships. I2A provides business, government and community participants an overview of partnership principles, guided site visits to examples of partnership in action, and a facilitated exercise in corporate-community action planning.

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Engagement to Action (E2A)
E2A provides a comprehensive and systematic method for aligning interests of communities and businesses. Using a highly participatory methodology that involves all stakeholders ? community leaders, citizens, corporate management and employees ? E2A is able to unite formerly disparate groups and assist them in articulating and developing a common vision for the future. The result is a sustainable engagement plan and strategies to deliver mutual value in the long term.

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Organizational Capacity Assessment (OCA)
Pact's unique methodology for organizational capacity assessment and strengthening (OCA) helps organizations anticipate and overcome the greatest barriers to organizational change and growth. Through a guided self-assessment and planning process, organizations reflect upon their performance, and select the tools and strategies they need to build capacity and broaden impact.
Pact's OCA is the product of ten years of research and field practice in partnership with the Education Development Center and USAID's Office of Private & Voluntary Cooperation. Hundreds of local and international NGOs, private-sector corporations, and municipal governments around the world have used our methodology.
OCA is a four-staged process that includes:

• Participatory tool design that empowers organizations to define the critical factors that influence their performance and to identify relevant indicators for evaluating their competency.
• Guided self-assessment that leads employees, board members, and constituents through structured discussions followed by individual scoring on a series of rigorous performance indicators.
• Data-guided action planning that provides organizations with an opportunity to interpret the self-assessment data and set change strategies most appropriate to their environment.
• Reassessment for continual learning that allows organizations to monitor change, track the effectiveness of their capacity-building efforts, and integrate new learning as their needs change and capabilities increase.