Ahold Delhaize response to Oxfam's analysis of supermarket HRIAs and commitments
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Ahold Delhaize’s Human Rights Report 2022 (and the previous Human Rights Report 2020) provides detailed insight into our approach to human rights due diligence. Ahold Delhaize recognizes that driving positive impact and mitigating negative impact for people is most effectively accomplished locally through its brands...
As part of its Roadmap on Human Rights, Ahold Delhaize committed to five next steps, including formalizing the approach to due diligence. We are currently working with an external partner to expand our due diligence process to social and environmental impacts with engagement of relevant stakeholders. To improve the effectiveness of our social compliance program, Ahold Delhaize reviewed and updated its Standards of Engagement in 2023 (available here), which now includes expectations on responsible recruitment, land rights and the environment, as well as strengthens our accountability expectations of our suppliers. In the Roadmap, Ahold Delhaize also committed to support some of the priority salient issues at the group level. While still work in progress, we will conduct at least two Human Rights Impact Assessments in 2024, and we will provide an update on our progress in the Human Rights Report 2024, which will be published later this year.
On a final note, Albert Heijn’s response clearly demonstrates that this is a journey and that they are learning as they go. In the coming months, Ahold Delhaize will also gain practical experience with conducting Human Rights Impact Assessments. We intend to first evaluate our experience with HRIA’s, together with the brands, to then draw conclusions on what guidance, if any, we should provide to the brands going forward. In that process, we will also take into consideration the learnings from Albert Heijn, as well as the best practices shared by Oxfam and other stakeholders, to ensure that we drive meaningful change in addressing our salient impacts.
