Originally published via Ardea International, 2nd August 2024
Responsible disengagement can be defined as occurring when an organisation “aims to prevent negative impacts that may result from a company’s withdrawal from a business relationship”.
On a basic level, the answer per the OECD is that supplier disengagement should be a last resort, where prevention and mitigation measures have failed, where there is no feasible way that they will succeed, or because of the severity of the adverse impact.
This is then not to say that disengagement is never an appropriate action to take; it can absolutely form part of a company’s risk mitigation efforts. Examples of situations where it might be appropriate would include instances of systematic violations of rights, or where conflict makes the situation untenable.