Responsible Exit

Anticipate and plan a clear exit strategy in advance. This will include:

• Designing a responsible exit plan as part of the human rights due diligence process from the onset of the project.  Ensure any human rights impacts that might arise from the company’s exit are identified in advance, and create a plan to mitigate these.
• Providing reasonable notice to communities, suppliers, workers and other partners of the pending disengagement.
• Ensuring, to the best extent possible, that staff continue to receive income, both in the event of loss of employment and in the event of temporary suspension. Enact a plan to mitigate the loss of employment; this might include providing employees with training, capacity-building and/or other support initiatives (as relevant to the local context).
• Creating plans to protect the security of remaining staff.

If a company is offering engagement or input in community activities and programmes, it should seek to mitigate the effects of its exit. For instance, the company might create a plan to hand over its community programmes to an adequate entity, such as a civil society actor or a multi-stakeholder initiative.