Technical Guidance on Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement in the Garment, Apparel and Textile Sectors
Presenting the practical toolkit for brands to integrate meaningful stakeholder engagement across their human rights due diligence processes.
This Guidance builds on five principles of the MSE Framework — legitimacy, accessibility, safety, equitability, and respect — adapting them to the garment, apparel, and textile sector.
About this Guidance
This Technical Guidance follows the LASER Principles laid out in the Framework on Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement (Framework) for integrating meaningful stakeholder engagement (MSE) into companies’ human rights due diligence processes.
It adapts the Framework specifically to the global garment, apparel, and textile industry (hereinafter ‘the garment sector’), focusing on MSE as a critical lever addressing human rights risks and impacts within companies’ supply chains. It provides step-by-step guidance, practical tools, concrete examples and case studies, and tailored recommendations for centring rights-holders and affected communities.
This Technical Guidance emphasises that companies understand that MSE is not a one-time check-the-box exercise. It is a continuous process embedded throughout all stages of the human rights due diligence (HRDD) cycle, and a means to co-create solutions with stakeholders that improve human rights in the world of work.
Notably, this Guidance does not cover a company’s own operations (such as headquarters or retail sites) or provides direction on engagement with directly employed staff.
Structure of the Guidance
The Technical Guidance is organised into three main sections which, taken together, support companies in embedding MSE throughout their due diligence processes:
Section 1: Why is meaningful stakeholder engagement important in the garment sector?
This section examines the unique structural characteristics of the garment sector that make meaningful engagement both essential and challenging. It discusses common barriers faced by stakeholders, the benefits for companies, and outlines relevant expectations under both soft and hard law.
Section 2: How do I design the stakeholder engagement process?
This section offers practical guidance on planning, executing, and measuring and communicating outcomes of stakeholder engagement. It covers 6 themes fundamental to conducting meaningful stakeholder engagement:
Establish the purpose and objectives of engagement.
Determine the scope of stakeholder engagement.
Select and prioritise stakeholders.
Choose the forms of engagement.
Conduct the engagement activities.
Measure and communicate impact.
Topics include determining the appropriate scope and scale of engagement, identifying and prioritising stakeholders, assessing barriers to participation, selecting effective forms of engagement, and maintaining ongoing trust-based relationships.
Section 3: When is it important to do stakeholder engagement?
This section provides practical advice, tools and recommendations on how to embed meaningful engagement in the following six steps of the Human rights due diligence process in alignment with the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct.
Step 1: Embed responsible business conduct into policies and management systems
Step 2: Identify and assess adverse impacts
Step 3: Cease, prevent, or mitigate adverse impacts
Step 4: Track implementation and results
Step 5: Communicate how impacts are addressed
Step 6: Provide for or cooperate in remediation
Throughout the Guidance, the below icons are used to signal content that is related to one or more of the LASER Principles for MSE. These visual cues are intended to support the reader in navigating the document and in identifying specific parts that elaborate on each principle in practice:
Explore the MSE Framework
In February 2025, STITCH launched the Framework on Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement, outlining five key principles for impactful MSE in all sectors: legitimacy, accessibility, safety, equitability, and respect. Learn more and access the framework.