Building trust through dialogue: Stakeholder engagement in ASI’s assurance processes
Members of the Indigenous Peoples Advisory Forum (IPAF) participate directly in audits, bringing lived experience and cultural knowledge that both enrich the process and build trust.
26 August 2025
One example is the participation of members of ASI’s Indigenous Peoples Advisory Forum (IPAF) in audits. By joining audit teams as specialists or witness assessors, IPAF members bring essential lived experience, cultural knowledge, and local language skills that external auditors alone could not provide. Their involvement “demystifies” audits for communities, builds trust with companies, and helps ensure that impacts on people, culture, and the environment are properly understood and addressed.
Community engagement is also central. During audits, affected communities are consulted directly, with ASI oversight ensuring that auditors speak to a representative cross-section of stakeholders, in their local languages. For example, in India, an IPAF member participated in an audit, as an audit team member where they visited nearby villages, met with trade unions, reviewed the company’s grievance mechanism, and spoke with residents about water quality and emergency response planning. This kind of direct engagement often resolves concerns before they escalate into formal complaints, creating shared understanding and quicker, fairer solutions.
ASI also invests in building Indigenous capacity regarding the aluminium value chain. The Registered Specialist training has been adapted for IPAF members with more interactive and in-person sessions. To date, it has been delivered in several countries and online, equipping participants with the knowledge and tools to contribute formally to assurance processes. Some IPAF members are preparing applications to become Registered Specialists so that companies and auditors can engage their expertise, laying the groundwork for more Indigenous auditors in the future.
Finally, when concerns do arise, ASI’s Complaints Mechanism provides a structured, transparent way for rightsholders and companies to work through them. For example, in one case, community members raised concerns that their complaints to a company were not being answered or resolved. Through ASI’s dialogue process, the company reviewed and updated its grievance system to include clearer communication channels, transparent timeframes, and a requirement for both sides to confirm when an issue was closed. The company also trained staff on the improved procedure, resulting in a more responsive and trusted mechanism for handling future issues.
Through these approaches, ASI assurance processes are enriched by rightsholder perspectives, building stronger certification outcomes, improving trust, and helping ensure that aluminium’s future is one that respects people, nature, and communities.
A community visit during an ASI witness assessment in India - July 2023
SHARE THIS ARTICLE
